A liar's due
by degloriamacharius
Summary: Not every hero is a knight in shining armour. Most are simple folk, pressed into the fires of war and made to fight the battles of lords and kings. Cato is one such person, dragged from his comfy life into a world of magic, castles and Snow Queens. Forced to navigate dark plots and awkward silences, how far is he willing to go to change the very world around him?
1. Chapter 1

**Good day! Well, thanks for stopping by. Really, it means a lot to me Anyway, this is my first ever fanfic, the explanation is at the bottom. This chapter's a little slow, but ,honest to god, it will pick up later. **

**So read on and enjoy, feel free to nitpick to your hearts content and leave as many reviews as you wish. Thanks and enjoy!**

* * *

><p><em>Abhor the Night, it is the light that endures<em>

Space. A cold, desolate void. Pretty much the emptiest place in the universe. Statistically, one hundred percent of space is nothing. It is empty. The 'nothing' part takes up so much space that the bits that do, the planets, stars and roiling clouds of gas, get rounded through some sort of massive cosmic rounding error.

Despite this, humanity has always been fascinated with the heavens. The study of space has evolved almost as much as man. From simply looking at the stars we decided to claim it is the home of deities. We still do to some extent. And who's to say they're wrong?

But now, now is the time for space to peal back its curtains, to reveal mysteries so ancient it makes our planet no more than a mewling infant.

Many would wonder why I was still in my lecturers' room instead of my room. Like the rest of humanity, space has always fascinated me. Unlike humanity however, I was fully possessed to understand it. Combine genius level intellect with a fervent passion to understand all creates a human destined to unravel the labyrinth of puzzles nature laid before us. Or so I tell myself.

My current therapist insists that I should think about the good of mankind, use my 'brilliance' to cure cancer or something. Maybe. Or I could reach out, touch the stars, achieve fame and fortune in the great field of physics. Whilst making an absolute fortune from books, interviews and grants. Add in my inheritance as soon as my parents 'pop off', remove my siblings and monopolise the black market deals that I currently entwine myself in and I'll be looking at a really good retirement.

Of course, my therapist approves not of any shady dealings or dastardly plots to remove my family, but what he doesn't know can't hurt him... much. He also wouldn't be pleased with sneaking back into Cambridge universities lecture halls to examine one of their newest additions to their geology department. He doesn't appreciate much, truth be told.

This particular rock had fallen into a field of sheep in Wales, terrifying the mindless animals milling about in their cage. Whilst lumps of stone falling from space aren't headline news, this one made it. Most space rocks burn up, leaving little behind to sow terror in the local wildlife. But this particular rock, not only lost little mass from re-entry, but _apparently_ looked like a skull.

Naturally scientists all over were excited at this lump of stone, but despite having one of the highest tested IQ's, my professor deemed me unsuitable. Probably jealous that at the age of twenty I had achieved the same amount as he had in thirty years of research.

So, I had been forced to call in 'favours' from fellow colleagues, not necessarily friends, to allow me access to this rock. For a supposingly important rock its defences were little more than a couple of guards who were fooled with the ease I eat my sandwiches and a camera network with a password that was about as trivial as _password_.

Really though, the rock wasn't impressive. It did genuinely seem to be stone and chance had allowed it to shape up as a skull of some sort. So I guess the lax security was more for stopping enterprising students from breaking into the more expensive laboratories. Not that it worked. Pity really.

I passed some labs, peeking through each of their windows for my target, quietly walking through the long corridors that during the day never seemed empty. As luck would have it the laboratory that I needed was at the end of the corridor. Whilst not particularly dangerous it did mean a tad longer of sneaking around like some common criminal.

Upon reaching the intended room I quietly unlocked door with the access codes I'd acquired (stolen) from a fellow student. Within, on a table, sat the rock, a collection of stoppered bottles filled with coloured liquids at its side. I pulled my own lab coat from my satchel at my side, pulling it round me to complete the scientist look, impractical in reality but cool nonetheless.

I placed the various equipment around the rock to the side, carefully checking the recorded results. It seemed whoever got dibs on this rock had decided that it was just stone and had left. Probably to get some nice acids to play with. And the permission forms that accompanied them. That was fortunate. It meant the rock and it's personal mysteries still lay unsolved.

Examining a stone may not be everyone's cup of tea, but for me it represented a repository of knowledge. That intrinsic desire to seek out new facts and solve problems had been my prime directive since my birth. It meant sacrificing a childhood, my family and almost all my friends but when one has focussed on something entirely then they know not what they miss. I didn't mind not knowing who my siblings were, because I was upstairs studying electromagnets. The pleasures of friendship, for the most, part escaped me, my own social interactions being primitive due to unuse, but I was experimenting with acids and bases. Deepening my understanding of the natural order.

My hands caressed the stones surface, seeking its indentations and cracks. The group who had been studying it had left their notes at the front and they were pitiful to read. The fools had leapt into using equipment, foolishly ignoring that most fundamental aspect of science. Observation. My own study accumulated much more than their own equipment could. This was solid. But no cracks, clearly very dense. Strong. The shape itself did not seem to be natural. Smooth curves and indents that symmetrically aligned with one another. This wasn't natural. It was crafted. Something had created this object.

Excitement built up within as my brain raced along hundreds of possibilities. _Alien_. Life somewhere else had made this. I drew my own equipment from my bag, setting them up with the other instruments to qualify my theory. My heart was pumping, finally a break. Spotting something so obvious that others had missed. To revel in their own misfortune. I grinned.

My hand slipped round a long rod within my bag. Perhaps the least scientific of my tools but nonetheless an important one. A thin stick of plastic that I colloquially called my poking stick. I placed it at the side and started the instruments the table over.

It was at about this point that things went wrong. The rock began to glow, clearly from the inside, with a bright light. Naturally my equipment decided to stop working and would no longer analyse the material before me. I snatched up the nearest, which was analysing its composition, glancing at the display.

Ten percent: Boninite

Ninety percent: Unknown

My heart skipped a beat, with little consideration of the effects it would have on my cardiovascular system. It then missed a few more as the stone about the rock fell of, revealing the source of the light. Some sort of statue or idol I thought as light once again blinded me.

My hands reached round for something, closing once more on my poking stick. With a massive amount of no thinking whatsoever, I lunged for the source, stick pointing towards determined to find the source. And with the blessing of lady luck, immediately blacked out.

* * *

><p><strong>So, I did promise an explanation and if you've made it this far, you can put up with a little bit more rambling! Anyway, my English teacher is currently throwing a fit about how poor my english is and really, I need to buck up. So a friend suggested to post some stuff to get used to writing and wouldn't stop bugging me till I actually posted something. She is still here, threatening to do stuff to my lightsaber collection if I don't. like right over my shoulder...Gulp! <strong>

**Anyway, hope you enjoyed this. Feel free to leave a comment. Any help would be greatly appreciated: I need to pass those exams!**


	2. Chapter 2

**So I realised I'd given this a frozen tag, but included nothing from the film. Whoops. Unfortunately the big reveal is in the next chapter. But it is there. I swear to the Emperor himself!**

* * *

><p><em>Pain is an illusion of the senses. Despair an illusion of the mind<em>

I woke up, shaking my head from the foul memory. My body was running a full body scan, or more precisely telling me where it hurt. And _boy_ did it look good. Everywhere hurt. Muscles felt tired, pain wracked nerves all over and my head kept ringing. Lethargically, I got up, willing my body past its own limits of endurance, and for the first time in forever, it complied. Pain disappeared slowly as I began to move and my throbbing headache faded.

At last I could check my surroundings. Which sucked, because it was different. Like really different. I had gone from a state of the art laboratory in Cambridge, England to some garden. Or the remnants of the garden because clearly, however I got here hadn't been subtle. A great furrow had cut itself through grass at the back of a large stately house. Definitely not incognito. About this time, i realised two things. First, I was going to have a hell of a job explaining the damage. Second, I may have just inadvertently discovered a method of teleportation.

That last one cheered me up, although my brain insisted that this was some sort of dream. Which would suck even more. Because if I was dreaming something this good, then clearly something even worse was going on in real life and my brain had just said sod it, lets show a slightly better place instead.

I looked at the house again. It was big. Like really, really big but I couldn't be sure just how enormous this house was. The sun was no-where to be seen and the complete lack of light suggested night-time. I suppose it could also be an eclipse but we weren't due one for a couple weeks. From my position I guessed early morning based on intuition and nothing else. I finally decided to settle on the house being really big and started to check myself out.

My lab-coat seemed to have suffered the worse, covered in dirt from my crash. I pulled it off, placing it in my satchel. I pulled out my phone, trying to get some light to see what I had available. Firstly, no signal. Secondly, almost out of charge. This was surely a sign that better things were to come because frankly it couldn't get worse. I sighed, pulling out some the portable chargers I kept with me. After ten minutes of trying to untangle the knots in the dead of night. I finally managed to place both phone and charger in their section. My laptop seemed undamaged which pleased me. That thing would cost a lost to fix. My ipad and kindle also looked undamaged but I couldn't really check without making a lot of noise. That sorted out the essentials. Not that they would be any good, because when you're stuck god knows where you do not want to lug around half of PC world whilst having little money, little food and no F**ing clue where on God's green Earth you are.

Using a portable torch on my keychain, I looked for a way out. With luck giving me an unbroken laptop, seemingly okay e-devices and my health, I wasn't too positive about it giving me anything else. And I was right. The walls looked far too imposing, as did the spikes on top. The door from the house was locked and the only way in was an open window on the third floor. I sighed as I made my way to the house, determined to crawl into it. This could only end in disaster. I firmly strapped my bag to me and began to use muscles that hadn't been used for years as I started my haul up.

It took an hour. Trying to remain inconspicuous and silent added to the time. Not having climbed anything higher than a table added on about forty-five minutes. Even still, I wasn't exhausted. My body felt stronger, more co-ordinated than before. I conjectured that this was a possible side-effect of whatever that rock was. That was a sellable concept. I could make a fortune out of this rock. Pulling myself through the window, I stealthily landed in someone's bedroom.

From the decoration, a young girls, aged about seven by my reckoning (which actually counts for nothing). The door however lay ajar and the rooms occupant did not seem to be currently occupying it as well. Finally a fresh brand of luck. Using my skills of stealth once more, now well attuned due to constant use, I crept out and down the nearby stairs, determined to get out before anyone realised I had just destroyed a pristine lawn. The next room I entered was well-lit, a giant chandelier dominated the ceiling with hundreds of lit candles burning brightly. Some poor sod would have had to light all those I thought. Unfortunately, I realised that the lighting wasn't the most prominent thing in here. No, that would be the child and woman lying dead in the centre of the room, blood staining the ground they lay on. Uh-oh, I thought. This wouldn't be good.

Grimly I climbed down another set of stairs, being careful not to touch anything. I most certainly did not need to add my fingerprints to the crime scene The next room held more blood, but this time it's owner was still alive. A man was slumped against a chair to the side of the bannisters, his life-force casually draining away. I cautiously made my way to him. His assailants were no-where to be seen, although by my guess they had taken everything worth stealing and left already. It's what I would of done.

My brief course of first aid was dredged from the darkest corners of my memory as I examined his body. The scientist within was already working on him. The wound was caused by a blade, small but sharp. It had effectively cut through skin and into his stomach before being withdrawn. From his skin colour and the wound itself I had already judged him as dead. However, in real life he wasn't yet, and I felt obliged to offer the little support I could. Or at least find some important information.

I bent down, removing the items of clothing in my way to observe the cut. His eyes flickered and his hand reached out for mine.

"my family..." he muttered.

I shook my head. In response he nodded, his face showing little change. He already knew I guessed.

"I can save you though" I said, covering his wound with scraps of cloth I had torn from his clothes. "but, the cure... its expensive, and I'll have to be quick to get it"

He nodded, his eyes filling with hope. The desire to live stronger than that of regret. He pointed to a picture behind me, muttering "safe". His other hand pulled a ring of keys from his pocket. He fumbled around, bringing the keys closer to his failing eyes. Gently, I removed the ring from him and approached the portrait, of his ancestors, I guessed.

Pushing the picture to the side revealed a large metal box embedded in the walls. Upon further examination, I managed to identify which key went in and swung open the safe. Inside was a stash of money. However, I knew not what the currency was or the exchange rate for pounds sterling. So I took all of it. The coins were split into three different types: copper, silver and gold. Like world of warcraft, I thought as I packed most of it in my satchel and the rest in my pocket. I turned towards the dying man behind me.

"Just relax. I'll be back soon." I said to him.

He nodded, closing his eyes. I took that moment to sprint upstairs past him to find some clothes. He was dead already, no harm in taking advantage of his money and clothes. He didn't need it anymore.

I quickly found the master room, making my way to the cupboards on the far side. The room was pretty bare, the place a mess, most of the valuables taken away. But some of the clothes remained. Unfortunately this particular person like to dress up as some sort of medieval lord and role play. Whilst not a particularly bad hobby, he could have fitted his wardrobe with some common clothes. I was going to look a fool I thought, how selfish of him.

I snuck out of the house using the front door, not the most inconspicuous, but I'd had enough of climbing for a lifetime. It was now morning, the new sun rising brightly in the sky, enough to make me forget about the triple homicide I'd just exited from. The place I was in seemed to scream 'city'. Narrow cobbled streets, tightly packed houses made of wood and brick together and created the impression of wandering medieval London. Which was a shit-hole then. The air seemed fresher though, which was new to me; I was used to the recycled stuff in my room.

The streets were mostly empty, a few early-birds walking the roads with fresh food, safely tucked under arms. All in all, the city felt old. The streets lacked cars, buildings seemed poor and the people knew one another. I also felt like I didn't belong. Probably because I didn't. My outfit, whilst not as blatantly outstanding as I had first feared, still separated me from most. They wore similar but less 'fancy' versions than I was.

I looked back, the house I had just left was one of the biggest and therefore it's occupants would be sorely missed by some of the community. It would be prudent, I thought, to get away from that place. I turned down an even narrower alley way, which was a lot more gloomy. The kind of place I'd have recommended my lackeys to sell their 'goods' in. That is, a place that not many frequent on purpose.

Unfortunately for me, I wasn't alone. Towards the end stood two thuggish looking fellows with bags full of stuff on their shoulders. They took one look at me and grinned. I took one look at them and paled. Their boots were covered in blood. That said it all really.

They took one step towards me, stupid grins plastered over their even dumber faces. I ran away. No heroics, nothing silly. Just leg it as fast as possible. I heard them shout and I heard one fiddle with something that made an audible click over the fresh morning air. Shit, I thought as I ran. This was not going to end well either.

My new body however seemed to have different ideas. My legs moved well together, showing a grace that no-one would identify with me, ever. They had a much better resistance to lactic acid than normal as well which all pointed towards my escape. Foolishly my brain began to accept this as a possibility, and with that come hope.

Fate, however had different plans. In a moment I went from running full-pelt away from danger to flying through the air because some tosser had left a plank of wood just lying around, not a care in the world that someone could fall over it. What an asshole. My body, specifically arms, collided with the ground with speed as suddenly the opposing forces got a little support in the form of the cobblestone floor. My face was protected, but I was sure my arms were cut and grazed all over.

The worst hadn't come yet. It came a minute later puffing and panting. The two goons looked at one another in awful clichéd fashion before unanimously advancing towards me in a manner reminiscent of every single stereotype, ever.


	3. Chapter 3

**I did promise you a Frozen story. Here onwards is the Frozen section, instead of the boring, setting the scene bit. I applaud you if you got this far.**

* * *

><p><em>No army is big enough to conquer the galaxy. But faith alone can overturn the universe<em>

"Give us your stuff, then" one of them said, pointing towards my bag in case I shared the same defects he did. I shook my head in response

"F*** off, you bastards. Pick on someone else."

That earned me a broken nose. It also made the other goon pull out a small knife from his belt. The other pointed a pistol, a flintlock if history served me right, at me. At this range, only someone truly inept at shooting could miss. I was the only one I knew off capable of such a cock-up. This was going to get ugly. I balled my fists, ready to fight to the end.

"Now then. What's going on here then?" said a voice behind me. They looked up, I scrambled up and faced my new best friend. A guard, with a ridiculously fancy moustache was staring intently at the murderers. He was accompanied by four more guards with equally comical facial hair and not-so amusing spears and swords.

"Well, blow me lads, if it looks like the remnants of the Grimtoof gang hasn't reared its ugly head for the last time." he said to the two villains.

He turned towards his men who were now removing all traces of weaponry from the two crooks and place chains around their wrists. At spear-point of course.

Their bags of stolen loot were left however and the chief guard approached them. "Captain Williams at your service, sir. My sincere apologies on behalf of Weseltown for your treatment." he smiled good-naturedly. Which was fortunate because if he'd said that with malice I may of just collapsed.

'Weseltown', surely it was that place in that film... oh dear. My brain struggled to keep up with the constant near shocks that had been put through it in the last twenty-four hours. After what seemed like hours but in reality micro-seconds, I was able make a connection. Weseltown, a fictional state from the film 'frozen'. Which could only mean one thing. I was dreaming.

My personal knowledge of the film was pretty poor but my memory managed to make enough connections to enable the rest of the brain to focus on the task at hand: lying like hell to this nice captain here.

The captain had noticed my lack of speech and approached me, smiling still, but concerned for my well-being. "New in town?" he asked.

I nodded. The best lies are seeded with the truth. He looked back at the piles of loot, mostly money, jewels and clothes, but at the top, sat a bunch of papers. One of them took his interest for some reason. I mean, reading documents isn't really that interesting if you're not the recipient. Then again, this was most probably a dream...

He picked it up, glanced at it, nodded and placed it back down. "Just stopping by are you?" he said. Again, I nodded. I walked over to the letter he'd picked up. It was more of an invitation. To a coronation in Arendelle. There was only one person I knew in Arendelle who was having a coronation. However, with my luck it could mean any of the countries past rulers or rulers to be. I really couldn't tell when I was.

I looked back at the captain. "I don't suppose you know anywhere I could stay for the night?" I asked.

He smiled. "Well, my sister-in-law runs a neat little inn by the docks. You could stay there?"

I nodded in agreement, and the man's smile managed to grow even more as he took me there himself, chatting amiably about all the sights Weseltown could offer to a tourist like myself. Honestly though I'd seen the sights already. I mean, how can you top seeing dead bodies spilling fresh blood onto the very ground you're walking on?

The inn was lovely. For some reason, probably my clothes, the Captain had attributed all the stolen goods to be mine and insisted on calling me 'sir', which stroked my ego immensely. As a result of his companionship I also managed to procure one the best rooms the inn had to offer. Naturally, I had to play my part of being rich and upon his exit I insisted on giving him a small pouch of the gold coins which almost killed him. Apparently that's a lot of cash. Or coins rather. Nevertheless, I played my part admirably, if I do say so myself, portraying the reclusive aristocrat.

My next task was to get a ship to Arendelle. This was just as easy, Weseltown having many people willing to show a tourist where to go. I approached a medium sized merchant ship, with my pockets lined with gold, unsure of what to do. Fortunately, a sailor identified my predicament and personally showed me to his captain. After pressing a gold coin in this lucky lads hands I addressed the captain, a friendly, if slightly overweight middle-aged man.

"I seek passage to Arendelle" I told him, showing the fellow my invitation. He nodded

"Coronation, eh? Sure, I got room. You're not the first either. Got another coming along, as you can see, he's got a lot of stuff." he replied pointing towards the crates being placed inside the cargo. "got a spare room if you want it" he continued. I nodded.

"Four hundred silvers, if you can afford it." he said. Absent-mindedly I passed him one of the small pouches of gold I carried. His jaw dropped as he saw the gold and he grinned. "Pleasure to have you on board. Just drop your stuff by tomorrow and we'll be leaving the day after."

I smiled back, nodding before leaving him to explore the city.

After a good-nights sleep, I had decided on my plan of action. Whilst I was unsure whose coronation I was pretty sure that the trolls would be willing to help. Further, when I actually read the invitation it did seem to imply Elsa of Arendelle was getting coronated. How many _Elsa_s have ruled Arendelle? Not a clue. But that wasn't the only thing on my mind

Based on my current predicament, that rock had managed to transport me into some sort of parallel universe. Clearly this was not the Earth I was used to, which meant the possibility of 'magic' or complicated science as I insisted to call it. This meant dressing appropriately because if there's one thing I've learned from time travel films, is that time travellers always look like absolute fools in 'modern' clothes. By my guess, it was about late seventeenth century. Guns were being used and warfare was advancing in leaps and bounds. That boded well for time being didn't it?

My first stop was at a tailors, buying sets of clothes that kept you warm and more importantly looked stylish (apparently) at the same time. I then bought myself another bag and a rapier from the blacksmith. I was well-prepared for both heat and cold with a weapon that I could attempt to use should the need arise. Regardless if this was Elsa's tragic coronation or not, I would be ready for anything nature wanted to throw at me.

As a result, I boarded the ship pleased with myself. Going into anything with a plan makes you optimistic. Once boarded I was introduced to my fellow traveller. And lo and behold! If it wasn't that duke from the film. That confirmed it. This was most probably going to lead up to everything freezing over. That changed things slightly. Only just, I had considered this possibility.

The duke even had that same silly moustache and those small narrow eyes. But he greeted me courteously enough.

"A pleasure to meet you" he said. "Surely you won't mind accompanying me for dinner?" I smiled at that. Dinner was good. People didn't usually offer dinner before they killed you. Usually.

"Sure. I would be honoured to join you."

The dinner was great, as befits a duke, his guest and captain. He also seemed eager to open business with me as well.

"Really? Alderan seems like a lovely place to go some day."

I nodded, scooping food into my mouth. I had spent hours on my background, seeding the truth here and there but ultimately coming up a past so detailed it would be impossible to break. Unless you'd watched Star Wars or similar films, in which case it would be clear I'd just ripped them off.

"Yeah it is. Although its a bit far away for a holiday. I was conducting business with a King when this came my way. They guy it was for couldn't go, so he passed it on to me. To represent both our countries." I lied.

He nodded "A shame, I do enjoy opening trade with new kingdoms. It allows my people to suffer just a little less and after all, both parties should always come out on top." he lied. I could see he was a greedy git, only looking for ways to advance himself and undermine rivals. So we got along splendidly

After dinner, the two of us (the captain had to leave) cracked open the wine barrels. Whilst not really a fan of alcoholic beverages myself this was really good stuff, not the cheap crap from Sainsbury's. However I was careful to moderate my intake so as not to actually get drunk. But I was able to simulate it. Through genius level improvisation I was able to gleam date, country and small tid-bits that would seem odd to just ask for. This way I just appeared as another drunk idiot..

Sadly, the trip only lasted a week, and many empty wine glasses later we docked into Arendelle's harbour. The two of us (and the duke's guards) parted company on friendly. The duke to get started on his negotiations with the visiting ambassadors and me to rent a horse.

Despite being rich through ill gotten gains, I was loathe to spend almost six hundred silver on a horse. It cost more than the journey here. Instead, after making sure I knew where the stables were, I decided to steal one. I then made my way to the castle doors, ready for a journey that would change my life, hopefully for the good.


	4. Chapter 4

**I'll be producing several chapters quite quickly over the next few days, so the story will advance a fair bit. Things will slow down, but I've finished lots of them and it's just a matter of checking over them. I will end up with a timetable soon. So you'll know when to avoid my work. **

* * *

><p><em>The brave may fall valiantly in battle but only the coward lives to see another day<em>

With my stolen invite in hand, I made my way into the castle grounds, greeted by the castle staff. At this point the gates were already open, meaning I had managed to avoid meeting the princess and more importantly, the singing. Not that I had much against it but I do prefer a quieter environment. Preferably silence to be honest. As the guests made their way towards the chapel for the coronation, I did my duty as a noble in chatting with others. This was perhaps the most challenging. With my social skills being so unrefined I was drawing heavily on my ability to lie to cover.

Again, people seemed to desire to know precisely where Alderan was. Fortunately, this world hadn't been fully explored yet, so I was able to place my fictional country in the middle of nowhere, really really far from Arendelle. Most of these people probably hadn't got further than Europe yet. Which gave me some room to work with of about a thousand kilometres or so. Thankfully, everyone bought the horse manure that was my cover stroy and changed topics, usually to themselves. Which was just as tiring if for different reasons.

After about an hour of tedious chatter, everybody finally shut up to allow someone else, the vicar, a chance to talk. And talk he did. As you can imagine I don't intend many coronations. Or weddings. Or funerals either, so the whole religious ceremony thing sort of blew past me due to having no idea what the guy meant. I instead spent most of the time looking at the various iconography dotted about the church. It did seem familiar, hinting at Christianity which suggests a common ancestry with my own home planet if two similar religions were able exist in both worlds. Interesting.

This was also first chance to see the Royal duo themselves. Whilst I'd decided to take a seat at the back, I was able to identify which sister was which. And which was a witch.

I could tell the new queen was looking rather jumpy. Her eyes suggested a nervous disposition, jumping from person to person as if each of us were a threat. To my knowledge there were only two people capable of causing harm. Hans and myself. Then again, common people can be just as dangerous. Whilst my knowledge of the film wasn't as impressive as it would be say Star Wars or Lord of the Rings, my memory did suggest that she hadn't really used her powers much at this point. They'd got into some sort of fight or something and it had gotten out of hand. This was something that was probably right. I am rarely wrong in general.

Both Anna and Elsa looked similar to their animated counter parts. Whilst there may have been some slight differences, I hadn't studied the film in too much detail to analyse both and compare them in detail. I wondered briefly if I had downloaded the film onto my ipad or maybe onto one of my various memory sticks, pretty sure I should of checked beforehand. Silly things like that would deprive me of advantages that would be beneficial to the coming few days I thought, menatally scolding myself for my lax effort.

With the coronation finished, we were all able to attend the party afterwards. Inwardly I cringed. More social mingling. I hate that part. This time instead of twenty bloody questions, I got a queue of people all wanting _the pleasure to dance with me. _No doubt they wanted to see what Alderan could offer in terms of personal gain. I politely refused them all. I dance well, but I don't dance if I can help it. That's time that I could spend playing Pokemon on my DS. Shame I hadn't brought it with me.

As Anna and Hans left to go sing yet another song, I made my own way out, picking up my bundle of clothes to change into. Phase one was about to start.

Phase one started with screams. And snow. With the courtyard filling with a thin layer of snow and the fjord quickly freezing over, it was pretty obvious that Elsa had just lost it. I quickly made my way to the stables, using the snow as a distraction and with the stealth of a rogue who's just rolled a natural twenty, I made off with a horse.

Spending twenty minutes trying to control and figure how to move the beast was another oversight on my behalf. I definitely should of learnt how to ride a horse instead of playing video games, watching/reading fantasy or blowing up stuff in the name of science.

Once I'd figured out the basics, I made my way out of the city, hiding myself and horse in the forest, waiting for Anna to pass by. The royal princess did gallop past, but out of a different exit. Things were going well. Cursing my luck, I urged my horse to follow, managing to simultaneously duck branches and steer the horse through the forest. We burst out onto the right track and the two of us began to follow Anna's steps.

Urging my horse on, I finally caught sight of Anna after only a couple of hours riding. Unfortunately my own path was being stalked by a group of wolves that I'd attracted the attention of. I could see them in my peripheral vision, loping behind me. Even better was the fact that the wolves now had more prey and one of them was quite clearly unarmed. The pack of six wolves sprinted past me, terrifying Anna's own horse into throwing her off and running away at speeds that would make me proud.

I sighed as I forced my own horse forwards towards the waiting pack of wolves who were slowly circling the entrapped princess. One hand drew out my rapier whilst the other gripped firmly on the reins and I levelled the blade at the wolves as I convinced my horse to charge the beasts.

That was stupid. The horse caught one wolf with its hooves. My blade did nothing and the wolves tore into my poor horse's unprotected sides. Deeming this the appropriate time to jump ship, I leapt from the saddle and slammed into one of the attacking wolves. My blade pierced its stomach with luck, finally bloodying the blade. I let my momentum carry me further, the wolves themselves to busy cutting through flesh to realise the loss of a pack member.

The princess hadn't been idle either. My distraction had enabled her to pick up a big stick to whack things with, whilst she threw stones at wolves further away. The wolves looked up from their feast to see that two prey were still up and kicking and stopped eating. They took one look at our pitiful last stand and charged as a group. I jabbed my sword forward meeting one wolf's momentum, impaling the beast on the blade, disarming me admirably as it died, wrenching the rapier from my grip.

Another wolf attacked and I met its snarl with a fist. The beast come out slightly injured. My hand was probably broken from the force. Anna was having more luck with her improvised weapons, wielding the stick in two-hands with more skill than I would ever possess in my life.

Admiring the princess's ability to fight would have to wait though. My wolf was still hungry and not in the least fazed by me. It leapt again and desperate to stop its attack, I stuck my injured hand out again to block it. This time instead of colliding with my fist the wolf managed to sink its teeth into my arm and sink its teeth in. I swore in pain, lashing out with my free hand and legs. My vision swam and I couldn't see clearly. So this was how it ended. Killed by some mutt. How pathetic.

The pain faded as the wolf let go, blood still on its teeth. It howled in pain and limped away. I stood up. The other wolves had retreated. Someone had scared them off. I looked at Anna. She seemed just as surprised at their retreat.

I made my way to my sword and pulled it out. Then picked up my satchel from the ground where it had fallen when I jumped. I turned around to see the princess right in my face.

"Thanks. I thought I was a goner. Then you came in and charged them.. Although when your horse fell..." she grinned at me, her smile fading at the mention of our fallen companion. It was dead. Its heart had probably gave out when five wolves tore into its flesh. My bad, I guess.

"No problem." I replied, conveniently omitting the fact I got the wolves on her scent in the first place.

"So... what are you doing here." she gestured around, "Not exactly the time for a stroll." she joked.

"I came out to help. After all two brains are better than one and four arms can kill more wolves." I lied shamelessly.

Well, four arms can usually kill more but sometimes one brain is better, especially if its mine. Fortunately the princess had only just got engaged to a guy she'd literally just met and then handed power to him when her sister went AWOL. She was so gullible. And naive. There was no way she'd realise I was lying.

At my lie she smiled. "Glad to have you. Won't lie, I was getting a little lost already."

The two of us began walking towards the north mountain which still seemed a little far away.

"I saw you at the coronation. And the after-party. Where are you from exactly?" she asked. I knew this was coming. The interrogation.

"I hail from a distant land, your Highness. A collection of states named Alderan. Perhaps you've heard of it?"

She shook her head. "You're not a king or prince are you?" I replied in the negative. "Then, seeing as I'm royalty, I'm in charge." I raised an eyebrow at that; I am not used to being ordered around. "And in that case, rule one, no titles. I'm Anna and you're... um, what's your name?" she said.

I lowered my eyebrow. Anna was much easier to say than your highness. Although that's probably because I'm lazy. Either way, it made things easier. And indicated the informality that she was more comfortable with.

I bowed low, to spite her obvious dislike of formality. "Lord Commander Cato Aurelius at your service." I said, grinning.

She smiled too, catching the jest. "Well, looks like I've found the trouble-maker in our party"


	5. Chapter 5

_Survival is no birthright, but a prize wrestled from an uncaring galaxy by forgotten heroes_

"What's a Lord Commander then?" Anna asked. "Are you military?"

I panicked. I hadn't come up with a lie for that particular aspect of my fictional background yet.

"I guess. I'm in charge of a special group of people and we ensure the kingdom is functioning well. Like guards, but we're not subject to the reigning monarchs laws, only the various Lord Commanders." I said smoothly, no hint of a lie portrayed at all by involuntary gestures. Smooth.

"Which means, Your highness, I need not obey your commands" I continued.

She grumbled, "It's not as if you do so already. Really, you could at least try to talk like a normal human." she complained.

Anna looked up at the surrounding area. "Snow! It had to be snow, She couldn't have had tr-tr-opical magic that covered the f-f-fjords in white sand" she complained to me. "It's so da-damn cold!" she shivered

I smiled. "Surely the royal princess watches her language constantly. After all swearing is a slippery slope. You start with the 'dang it's and 'golly goshes' and before you know it, you're letting slip with the damns and darns"

Anna looked back at me, eyes brimming with mischief. "Stop being so smug. A gentlemen would have offered me his coat already."

"Perhaps, but then said gentlemen would freeze whilst not being able to gloat in his ability to prepare for all encounters. Furth-" I was cut short as I slid down a small hill and into a small stream of still running water. I proceeded to launch into a tirade of Elvish, that would redden any Eldarin's ears.

Above I could hear Anna laughing hysterically at my situation.

"Wow. Calm down. I think there's your slippery slope Cato." she laughed again as she carefully made her way down, still giggling.

The water automatically soaked through my coat and clothes. My bag, being waterproof kept the electronics safe but I was freezing and my clothes sodden. As Anna carefully made her own way across, I tackled her, pushing her into the water. Princess or no, no-one laughed at me and successfully got away with it.

What proceeded was a water fight in which both combatants got thoroughly soaked to the bone and a fight that both parties regretted as soon as it finished. The two of us trudged out of the stream exhausted and even colder than before.

"If I get hypothermia Anna..." I warned, waggling a finger in front of her.

She laughed, pushing her way past "Look where you're going Aurelius. Instead of being so full of yours- Oh, look." she pointed towards the distance. I followed her gaze to see smoke curling out of the forest not too far from our position. "Fire!" she breathed.

"Smoke, actually." I replied

Anna shrugged. "Whatever. I bet its warm."

We slowly made our way to Oaken's store, our clothes freezing as the water froze. Anna reached the wooden hut first, because she wasn't carrying a spare change of clothes, a laptop, a mobile and two e-devices along with lots of other cool but useless accessories.

She stopped to read the sign. "Wandering Oakens trading post. Ooh, and Sauna!"

Naturally I barged past her, determined to reach the warm comfort that wooden insulation offers. I pushed past and leant against the heavy door, using my shoulder to open it as my arms and hands were too frozen to move.

"Yoo hoo!" cried a cheerful voice as we entered. I just knew I wasn't going to enjoy this. "Big summer blow out! Half off swimming suits, clogs and a sun balm of my own invention, yah!" he told us. How helpful.

As Anna talked to the merchant, I wandered around to find a spot to change out of my wet clothes. To be honest there wasn't really anywhere really private, especially considering the sauna was taken already and I didn't feel at all comfortable changing in that particular place.

I ended up getting changed behind one of the shelves. As I struggled to pull of the sodden clothes, my eyes fell on some of the confectionery. Namely, the chocolate. Although the rest of the food caught my attention too.

I pulled up my trousers, fastening a belt tightly as I did so, wondering whether I could sneak some some of the food with me. As I was reaching for the shirt I'd bought back in Weseltown, Kristoff walked in.

Well, I was pretty sure it was Kristoff. It was a name I had linked with the film so I guess this was the right guy. He walked in and took one look at me, half naked from the waist up. "Nice" he said simply.

The door was still open and my clothes weren't particularly warm or good at keeping the cold out, so I was pretty irritated that it was still open.

"Shut the fragging door." I managed to get out. The wind outside heard my plea and slammed the door shut.

Kristoff sensibly ignored the maniac dressing behind a shelf and walked on towards the merchant. I finally managed to put on a fresh set of clothes. I picked up some of the food, including a lot of the chocolate for sale and rooted around the 'winter department' for something that would keep me insulated. Finding an appropriate cloak hidden behind a chair was hard work but finally I managed to pull the damn thing out whilst avoiding Anna and Kristoff's awkward meeting.

A few minutes later, Oaken sat down again, having just thrown Kristoff out. An amusing sight primarily because it didn't involve me for a change.

"Just the Snow boots and coat ya?" he asked. I placed my own goods down, hiding the chocolate from Anna as she looked thoughtfully after Kristoff. "These too. And those." I said pointing at the rope and carrots.

Anna turned round, looking back at me.

"He said the storm is from the North Mountain. He could lead us there" she said "Maybe if we buy his rope and the carrots..." she trailed of as I held up her winter clothes and the rope.

"Three steps ahead" I said smiling. My own food was safely ensconced within my bag (Yes, its a big bag and very heavy) and the chocolate in some of the neat little pockets I had.

Anna took the clothes, grinning back. "Great minds think alike. What are the next two steps?"

"You find somewhere private to get changed. Then you talk to the mountain dude."

Anna nodded, although this wasn't too surprising, it was a logical route. "Why me? Surely you can do it whilst I change?"

"You're the pretty one. If it doesn't work, I'll go in next but he's already seen me...yeah I won't finish that."

Anna laughed at my embarrassment before walking to a separate room behind the counter that had escaped my notice. I sighed as I realised my error before trudging out into the snow outside to test the effectiveness of my new cloak. It was surprisingly good, being quite thick and protected me thoroughly from the elements. It also gave me the chance to pocket my phone, freeing up some space in my bag.

Ten to twenty minutes later (I wasn't keeping track of the time, but it felt long), Anna walked out

"Did you have to change your hairstyle" I moaned as she walked out. "We could be home already if you hadn't"

She didn't reply but I received a bruised arm for my troubles. She picked up the rope and entered the little shed that Kristoff was bedding down in for the night.

"Nice duet" she said after listening to the poor man sing for a few minutes, startling him.

"Oh, It's you two... What do you want?"

"I...We want you to take us up to the North Mountain."

"Sorry, I don't take people places- Oomph" he said, cut short by the rope landing on him.

"Let me rephrase that...Take me up the North Mountain... please. Look, I know how to stop this winter." she said. No she didn't I thought.

"We leave at dawn... And you forgot the carrots for Sven." Kristoff said, relenting under Anna's masterful negotiation tactics

I passed the ammunition to the princess, who proceeded to launch the bag at our new party member.

"Oops. Sorry. Sorry. I'm sorry, I didn't... Er...we leave now. Right now"

"Nicely done" I whispered, ever the supporting person, as Anna doubled back behind the doors.

I popped forward to greet Kristoff. "Reindeer is the plural form already. No need for _Reindeers_." I said. "You're welcome" I added.

We all piled onto Kristoff's sleigh, Anna riding shotgun whilst I lounged in the back. Our little quest was picking up party members faster than my last Dungeons and Dragons quest. I just hoped we didn't lose them as quickly. After all if no one was in the way, who else could I hide behind.

Riding in a sleigh is like being on a roller-coaster. And I don't like those. Cars are... Okay. Boats are bad as well. But a sleigh? It's a car without the hood, with the stability of a boat and the potential speed of a roller-coaster. Not at all pleasant.

"Hang on! We like to go fast!" shouted Kristoff.

"I like fast!" replied Anna, placing her feet on the sleighs top.

"I don't" I volunteered at the back, my hands grasping at the rail, holding on for dear life as we went round a corner far too fast.

"Whoa, whoa! Get your feet down. This is fresh lacquer. Seriously were you raised in a barn?" Kristoff said upon seeing Anna's feet on his sleigh. Unfortunately, I picked this moment to pop back up. Saliva plastered itself over my head and I proceeded to have a fit in the back and missed Anna's response.

**If you're interested, although i don't blame you if you're not, Cato is literally the porduct of luck. We made loads of characteristic tables and rolled for Cato's various traits which explains his somewhat odd mix. Seriously, I've got like ten pages of notes about the guy, detailing everything from his background to foot size. It's a pain going through them all to find the useful bits. Anyway, it's like the dice gods wanted him to be a jerk, because his childhood is one tragedy after another... usually for the people that knew him. **


	6. Chapter 6

_Your foe is well-equipped, well-trained, battle-hardened. He believes his gods are on his side. _

_Let him believe what he will. We have the tanks on ours._

"So, what made the queen go all ice crazy?" Kristoff asked. At this point we were no longer hurtling over narrow paths at the speed of an energetic reindeer. Now, we were hurtling through relatively clear patches of forest. Not much of an improvement but you take what you can get.

"Well it was all my fault..." Anna started. I wasn't listening too hard because the opening bit was the part I wanted; I'd pulled my phone out of my bag and was secretly recording the princess's admission. You never know when it'll come in handy.

"Wait, you got engaged to someone you just met?" Asked Kristoff incredulously. He looked back at me. "You guys only just met and you're going to get married already?"

Whoa, where the frak did that come from? I shook my head.

"I'm struggling to put up with her for a few hours. No way could I last a lifetime." I said sincerely.

Anna must of thought I was joking because she stuck her tongue out at me. I gave her the middle finger in response.

"Lover boy's back at the city, with full control over the city and its populace." I told him.

Kristoff looked at me. We shared a look. "Didn't your parents ever warn you about strangers?" he asked Anna.

"Yes, they did..." she replied, shifting back nervously. She looked back at me and I grinned at her in an attempt to unsettle her further. My parents had been too busy warning strangers about me, to tell me anything useful... if they had anything useful to say, which they hadn't.

"...But Hans is not a stranger"

"Oh yeah? What's his last name?" Kristoff asked. The conversation followed a similar style, as Kristoff ably demonstrated just how little the princess knew. I took this time to act as a look-out, making sure no nasty creatures were sneaking up on us.

It took five minutes till I realised we were being tracked. Unfortunately, Kristoff noticed earlier, rendering my work mute, the show-off.

"Sven go. Go!" he called out to his faithful friend.

Within minutes, we were being followed by a large pack of wolves yapping at us.

"Full speed ahead, Sven" I yelled as panic overtook me.

By now, Kristoff was swinging a torch with wild ferocity at the beasts that threatened us. Anna and Kristoff were bickering over something. But it ended up with Kristoff falling off. With the reactions of a seeker, Anna grabbed the falling torch and lit one of the bundles of cloth at the back of his sleigh.

My own contributions involved waving my rapier with enthusiasm, trying, and failing, to cut down wolves. One extremely lucky blow slapped a wolf out of mid-air and sparks flew from its coat. Static electricity? I thought to myself as the wolf backed off. I turned round to help Anna drag Kristoff in. I grunted as we pulled him in, he was really heavy. Probably all muscle I guess, but my straining muscles succeeded where once they would of failed. This rock was great, it was like my very own performance enhancing drug cache!

Fortunately, fate wasn't finished raining on our parade. Fresh from the victory of saving Kristoff, we now had that death-defying leap to make. Kristoff bundled Anna onto Sven.

"Get ready to jump!" he yelled to me.

I knew what was going to happen. I was a physicist. The law of inertia. That's fine. As a theory it checks out. As practical application? Well shit, things just got real.

We hit the cliff. Kristoff sliced through the rope. Sven jumped. Kristoff looked at me. I looked back.

"See you on the other side" I said.

We both nodded. And then we jumped. I landed on the snowy bank on the other side. Safe. I breathed a sigh of relief.

"Cato!" yelled Anna. "A little help would be nice" I sighed. No rest for the wicked. I walked over to her and fashioned a makeshift rope with the pickaxe and rope. With the precision born from a dozen videogames, I accurately tossed the blade to reaching distance of our struggling guide.

"Hold on. We've got you." I called down at the lamenting mountaineer.

After another minute of hauling we got Kristoff back, again. Anna looked down at the wreckage. "Whoa!" she said.

"What were you keeping in there? Petrol? Gas?" I asked. Sledges don't spontaneously explode. No-one answered because Anna was still talking. How rude.

"And I understand if you don't won't to help me anymore. Either of you" she said, looking at the two of us on the ground.

I looked back up, exhausted. "You're kidding right?. Anna, I didn't get this far too quit. My sword is yours to my last breath" I lied smoothly. Next time things got hairy, I was doing a runner to safety. Screw bravery.

She smiled at my reply, looking back at Kristoff.

We walked off, leaving the mountaineer to have his conversation with Sven. In minutes our party was at full strength again.

The film makes the next part of walking to the mountain look a breeze. It wasn't. My legs were tired. I was tired. And it was cold. And we weren't doing anything wildly interesting, so the film cut it short, giving a few scenery shots instead. Unfortunately for my legs, we couldn't skip this. As a result, we ended up talking about nonsense as friends do. A completely novel experience to be honest.

We took a short break on a small mountain ridge. I'd managed to save my own stuff, primarily because I was carrying them with me. This meant we had a little food and drink for the time being. It also meant I had to share, which sucked. I hate sharing with people.

Anna looked out over the mountains and the way we'd just come and we all joined her.

"Arendelle... It's completely frozen over" said Kristoff, stating the f***ing obvious as usual.

"But it'll be fine. Elsa will thaw it" replied Anna optimistically.

"Will she?" I asked.

"Yeah. Now come on. This way to the North Mountain?" she asked Kristoff.

He shook his head and smiled. "More like this way" he said, lifting her arm up.

I sighed and got up. More walking just great. Just absolutely fantastic.

After about five hours of walking we made it to another forest. Here the leaves had frozen solid into remarkable chains of ice. The noise they made was sweet at first but Sven killed it to be honest.

"I never knew winter could be so beautiful" muttered Anna clearly impressed by the beauty her sister had made whilst losing control and running away. I'm pretty sure there was some bias somewhere in there.

My thoughts were scattered from their focal point of interpreting human emotions, a quest doomed to end in failure due to my inability to conceive inter-family friendship, by Olaf. The walking, talking merchandise.

I could just imagine the snowman sitting on little children's beds and maybe on a few adults' as well. I probably should have been paying attention more as he proceeded to get his head knocked of by an enthusiastic Anna. It probably wasn't important. I think he was just talking about urine. Something like that I guess. Again, I'd blanked out. Whoops.

Olaf's head was now firmly attached to his body. Well thank goodness for that. Now his head had mobility. He could spread his cheerfulness from town to town. As you might guess, I don't like being too happy. It dulls the senses. Especially your own.

"And that's Cato. Another friend." Anna told the snowman.

Olaf nodded cheerfully, his head just bobbing up and down. He then talked some more, but really I was just glancing over his words. Really he was just too cheerful. To cap it off, he launched head first into his song about summer and suicide. At this point I just ignored them, starting to walk off. I had successfully managed to avoid all the songs in this movie. An impressive feat when one thinks about just how many there were.

"Lets go bring back summer! Come on!"

"I'm coming!"

I heard them behind me.

"Took your time. Don't we have a schedule to keep to" I said a little coldly.

The humans looked a little abashed, but Olaf just went up to me.

"Turn that frown upside down!" he crowed as he wrapped two twigs round my leg. I sighed. This trip just got longer I thought.

We continued our quest with a larger party. We actually were a group of adventurers now. We had a leader (me), the smart one (me) and the cannon fodder (everyone else). Unfortunately Olaf did not shut up. We ended up telling him every single detail from our journey up to here. And more. Story after story. Anna just loved the little guy and just kept on feeding him with stories.

"So," I asked Anna, in an effort to break the monotonous cycle of stories "What's your plan?"

"Oh, I am going to talk to my sister." she replied confidently. I looked at Kristoff.

"Say good-bye to your ice business" I told Kristoff.

He nodded in agreement. "That's your plan? My business is riding on you talking to your sister?"

She nodded "Yup"

"You sure you don't have a back up? Nothing up your sleeve if the probable happens and your sister is actually an evil sorceress bent on world domination by freezing the Earth and using an army of talking snowmen to psychologically undermine everyone in her path?" I asked, indicating the bouncing bundle of snow in front of us.

"Relax. It'll be fine." she said, waving off Kristoff's concerns and my pessimism

"Yeah, I bet she's the nicest, gentlest, warmest person ever." interjected Olaf. "Oh, look at that, I've been impaled."

I sighed as I bent down to retrieve the suicidal snowmen from the icicle.

"Look sharp team. We're almost there." I said, after I'd pulled the git out.

In front of us was a rather unfriendly looking wall of rock. To the side was the path Olaf was going to point out. No way was I going to waste time with the climbing shenanigans, consequences of ruining their relationship be damned. I turned to the group.

Anna was already climbing the wall. Or trying to. She hadn't got very far. I joined Kristoff who was conversing with the princess.

"Hold on, I'll come get you".

"Hey, Cato? Not sure if this is going to solve the problem, but I found a staircase that leads exactly where you want to go" Olaf cried out to me.

I nodded before relaying the message back to Anna and Kristoff. "Oh, thank goodness" cried Anna before jumping off.

The plucky girl landed right in my arms. In my surprise I immediately let go. She fell to the floor, caught at the last moment by Kristoff who saved her from landing face first into the snow. "Nice catch, both of you. That was like some sort of crazy trust exercise." she said, running of to join Olaf.

I made to follow, turning when I didn't hear Kristoff's footsteps, a dreamy gaze on his face. I sighed."Keep up Bjorgman!" I said, before turning to catch up with the party.


	7. Chapter 7

_Every human life is a spark in the darkness. It flares for a moment, catches the eye and is gone forever. A retinal after-image that fades and is obscured forever by newer, brighter lights_

We approached the ice castle. Once again, Disney had done a bang up job of portraying it. I was pretty sure it was identical to the movie. Except I was there, in front of it. In real life. It was more impressive looking up at the castle knowing that the person who made it had also made that previous valley of really sharp icicles.

"Whoa" stated Anna. Kristoff looked equally amazed.

"Incredible" he said. Both of them looked at me.

"Eh. Could be better." I said. No way was I letting them know that I was impressed. "Your sister may have just lost her marbles, but she sure does know how to make a castle extremely vulnerable to a siege." I said.

Anna scowled. "There's no pleasing you is there?" I shook my head in response.

I motioned for the party to follow Olaf, who was jumping up the stairs, his stumpy legs struggling to make it over some of the steps. Obviously, I ignored his trouble and forged ahead, leaving Anna to help the poor snowman and Kristoff to aid Sven, whilst muttering things like "Flawless" and other synonyms. Really, these savages were impressed by one lone castle; whilst pretty cool (intentional pun) it was no less than a skyscraper in my opinion. I mean skyscrapers aren't put up with 'magic' for starters.

We clustered round the door. "Just knock" Olaf said, watching Anna pause. "Why isn't she knocking?" he asked me. "Do you think she knows how to knock?" he asked innocently.

I shrugged not intending to launch into my theory of why not. Anna was still hesitant. With the subtlety of a rhino, I barged past and landed three knocks of my own. I looked back at the girl in way of an apology.

"Arendelle just froze to death whilst waiting" I said. She scowled in response to my tactless comment

The doors shuddered open. Anna chuckled nervously "Huh, it opened. That's a first" she said to herself. She looked back at us. "You should probably wait out here" she said.

"What?" replied a confused Kristoff. I nodded. This was a scene I remembered. In order to get the the trolls I had to let Anna get shot. This was essential.

"Last time I introduced her to a guy she froze everything" she said apologetically to us.

"But...But... Oh, come on! It's a palace made out of ice!. Ice is my life!" he complained throwing his arms in the air.

"Oh, that's cool" I said sarcastically. The pun was intentional though. It was also hypocritical, considering I spent my evenings playing games or painting little soldiers. Not that I was going to tell them that either.

"Bye Sven" called Olaf, sauntering through the doors. Anna gently grabbed him, placing back outside.

"You too, Olaf."

"Me?" he asked her.

"Just... give us a minute." she pleaded. I nodded. I was going to give her as much as she wanted. That way I was in the line of fire for not very long indeed and she was.

Unfortunately, Olaf, being such a simple minded creature, decided to take this literally, counting up to sixty. The doors shut. On their own. Like in every horror movie ever. The queen hadn't made up her mind between scary and nice yet, had she.

A minute is not very long. But it's longer when someone starts counting to it. I was pretty amazed that the snowman could manage sixty. I was betting he'd struggle after the twenties. Olaf proceeded to waltz into the castle, a carefree grin on his face. Within moments, we could hear heated voices. And worse, singing. Damn it, I thought. Why did I have to come to this place. Star wars had a lot less singing. I sighed as Olaf came back.

"What happened?" asked Kristoff. Olaf told us.

"Sounds bad" Kristoff summarised elegantly. I was grinning, pleased at this. The quicker Anna got shot, the quicker I got home.

Kristoff and Olaf practically ran into the foyer, managing to not slip over on the frictionless surface. I fared much worse. Using the sides as a support, I made my way to the stairs, my colleagues already in front. This gave me time to observe the interior decoration. It was a little bland. No TV, games console or other useful twenty-first century tech. Which means the place sucks. How did people entertain themselves without those essentials of life?

I heard the singing stop, which probably meant Elsa had just frozen Anna's heart. All good, I thought. I sprinted (or tried to) up the stairs, coming into the room in which everybody had gathered. Boy did it look good. Anna on the floor, being helped up by Kristoff. Perfect. One frozen heart, one quick jaunt to the trolls and I'll be patenting magic rock juice within days. Now how did they get down...

Elsa stood to the side of the room, telling us to get the f*** out. To reinforce her point she waved her hands, conjuring up a massive snow monster in between us. Great.

I'd forgotten about the monster. Now it was between me and my ticket home. With a roar, the beast picked up my companions and turned menacingly towards me. Years of boss fights had taught me one thing however, against big, slow monsters such as this one. I drew my rapier and charged the beast, sprinting and sliding past it and applying the age, old gaming logic to the fight. Namely, sticking my face in its ass till it winds up its AoE and keep hacking till it does so. A sound stratagem when you're at home. Not so when you're on ice. I slipped and the snow golem slammed its foot down on an outstretched leg.

I howled in pain. Instant diagnosis: broken leg. Even better. The pain flooded my body and I heroically passed out.

I woke scant minutes later, carried in one of the golem's massive hands. We were outside again. I briefly considered how this hulking monster got down the stairs without them breaking. I did not know how high ice's yield point was. But it was probably pretty high. Of course that wasn't my main concern. That was my malfunctioning leg. And maybe being hurled across the chasm we had recently just gone over.

With an Oomph and a good deal of cursing, I managed to crawl out of the little snow hill I'd made on impact. My sword was nearby, the monster had scooped it up with my body it seemed.

"It is not nice to throw people!" Anna yelled as she rolled some snow into a fine snowball.

"Whoa, whoa, calm down feisty pants. Just relax" exclaimed Kristoff. "Just calm down! Calm down" he cried out as he wrestled the snowball launching arm into submission.

"Okay! All right, I'm okay" she said

"Just let the snowman be" the man said as he let her go.

Anna twisted as soon as his back was turned and furiously hurled her missile at the snowman.

"Oh come on..." Kristoff sighed. I resisted the urge to start sarcastically clapping.

The snowman turned back towards us, completely unharmed. He roared and ice spiked out of all sorts of silly places.

"Oh look. See you've made him mad" said Kristoff a little smugly. Anna's eyes grew big and she took a step back.

"You guys go, I'll distract him" exclaimed Olaf, his head still sitting separated from his body.

I shook my head. "Uh uh." I grunted. I pulled his head out and firmly stuck it to his body. "I'm not going anywhere like this" I said pointing at my broken leg and the sword I was using as a make-shift crutch. "Go. All of you. I'll hold back the monster to give you time" I told them as a sudden burst of heroics took over me. Damn, I'd broken more than just my leg I thought as my mouth refused to close.

They tried to argue, but I held a hand in the air to shut them up. I was doing something nice for a change and they just treated it with suspicion? Couldn't blame them really when I thought about it. I motioned for them to move and twisted so I was facing my foe. The snowman was trying to make its way along the narrow stair case, giving us some time.

I picked up a suitable branch for a crutch and placed my sword in my off-hand. At most I could hobble around him. Waste time. A last stand. How pathetic my brain told me. I smiled. Nice to see the cynical elements were still working fine. The snowman was closer. It was still roaring.

I focussed my pain into a strength, infusing it with my fear. I intended to hold my opponent back for as long as possible. This felt strange though, doing something for others. It gave out a warm sensation that travelled throughout my body. Fever, I thought. Just my luck.

I was close enough to make out the snowman's more intricate details. The claws. The sharp icicles. The primitive eyes, narrowed in hatred. In fear. Any minute know. My body calmed itself. Ready to put up a fight. The pain subsided and my muscles tensed. I stood tall, determined to stand and fight. I drew upon inner reserves, anything to prolong my death and give my companions time to escape. No fear. No regret. Only duty.

Whilst searching I found a pool of untapped power. Without thinking I delved into it, allowing it surge through me, to fuel my last moments. Instead it gathered at my leg. I looked down to see sparks flickering beneath the cloth. My leg felt better. Workable. Moveable even.

It drained me, leaving me tired but it gave me mobility. Sparks, I thought. What was significant about that? The monster was upon me, its arm swinging, but my focus was elsewhere.


	8. Chapter 8

_In an hour of darkness a blind man is the best guide._

_In an age of insanity, look to the madman to show the way_

In my opinion, a scientist's greatest asset is observation. As a race we seem remarkably aware of tiny changes, recognising different facial expressions with ease and being able to see the whole spectrum of light with comparative ease. But for a scientist these changes are of utmost importance. A change in mass can be the difference between explosive hydrogen and inert helium. A tiny proton adds its self to helium's nucleus. Weighing so little you wouldn't ever notice a couple billion of protons landing on your skin. It's these differences that need to be spotted.

As a great physicist, my powers of observation are rather good. I pride myself on being able to identify the most minute changes. So, during my last stand against a snowman, my senses were at their peak. My body itself was functioning at speeds that equal any computer. I didn't become great through hard work, but through speed. Through the ability to theorise in seconds. To join the dots faster than a blink of the eye.

With my newfound mobility, my body itself was in good condition. I could see the queen watching the oncoming fight on her balcony hundreds of metres away. I could see the snowman tense as he swung his claws. My surroundings were clear to me, I knew every bump, stick and pothole for metres around. I rolled towards the snowman, reflexes kicking me towards my foe.

I dodged the swipe, coming up behind the monster. At the same time, my brain was piecing together the sparks. My nosebleed hadn't lasted long. My grazes had disappeared. I'd never noticed them. My arm had been bitten by a wolf yet it had been functioning perfectly ever since. I hadn't noticed the pain, obviously due to this innate healing art I'd literally just discovered. But then... the sparks during the second wolf fight. That static electricity. Maybe it could be weaponised.

This thought process lasted microseconds. A plan was thought out in seconds. It was carried out immediately. I swung my sword at the snowman's back, slicing through snow. Sparks again. I drew upon the sparks setting them upon my blade, which began to sparkle. Good. Now for a fight.

The beast roared, twisting after me. I gracefully jumped back, losing ground. I let it advance towards my companions, but slowly. I was no fool to keep it penned in one area. I darted through trees, running round my foe as it struggled to keep up with my energy, hidden from the queen by a blanket of snow encrusted trees.

I focussed the sparks, my own magic, into a lance of electricity, hurling it with accuracy at my target. The beast roared as it impacted, melting through some of the snow and cleaving through talons.. I ducked again, lashing out as I moved past the snowman. It twisted with speed, slamming a fist down upon me. I subconsciously put up my sword to protect me, whilst my mind formed a shield of electricity at the same time. Shield and sword held against his force. It hammered again, but I pushed off, determined to seek the advantage again, letting the wounded beast pound the air.

We were near the edge of the forest, I could hear Anna and Kristoff talking, even if I couldn't see them. Olaf was nearby as well, waddling as fast as possible away from us. I looked at my opponent who was currently ripping up a tree to throw at me. I ran towards him, making towards his legs. I slid through, jamming my blade into its crotch.

The snowman roared and threw the tree in frustration. Right towards my companions. Great. My foe then saw Olaf and decided that he made an easier target. It raced of to finish its fellow snowman, leaving me behind. I cursed as it then saw the snow anchor Kristoff had made and lumbered over to deal with them.

I raced to catch up, sprinting towards the beast as it swung Olaf off the cliff. It then began to hoist my colleagues up by the rope. Kristoff looked unconscious. Anna was trying to cut the rope with her hands. It looked like someone had dropped the pickaxe they used in the film. Fantastic. Just fantastic.

I stepped behind the snowman slashing at a talon to get its attention off my colleagues, before turning to Anna.

"Catch!" I yelled, throwing my sword towards her.

Showing catching skills worthy of a seeker yet again, she caught the sword. She looked up. And screamed something. I didn't hear because the snow monster had just thrust one of it's icy talons through my back and stomach before retracting it out again. I could see the red tip poking out from my sternum as it was removed. Belatedly I realised Anna was probably warning me about the attack. I knew not listening to people would get me in trouble.

I fell to my knees, blood dripping onto the snow. My blood. I tried to call on my new friends to fix this, but the sparks didn't come. I coughed blood onto the snow, looking back up at Anna. "Sorry" I mouthed. The snowman then kicked me of the cliff edge and all I knew then, was the dark.


	9. Chapter 9

_Though my guards may sleep and my ships may lie at anchor, our foes know full well that big guns never truly tire_

As you might have guessed, fate did not allow me to cheat my destiny. Probably a good thing really. All I knew was that it hurt like hell.

I woke up, on something suspiciously smelly. With a start I realised it was Sven. No wonder if he slept alongside Kristoff. I was draped over the reindeer's back like a carpet, which was probably damaging to my pride if it wasn't easing the pain I felt throughout my body.

Someone noticed my activity and knelt down to see me. It was Anna. Of course.

"You okay" she asked.

I shook my head. I was not okay. She opened her mouth and closed it again, nodding. I looked up at her, or tried to, my neck really didn't want to move much. Her hair, usually a strawberry blonde colour was infuse with strands of white. Or more white now. I was pretty sure that we had more important things than letting her dye her eye.

"Your hair..." I managed to gasp.

She held up a strand of the white hair "Does it look bad" she asked. I nodded. She scowled at my honest opinion before sighing. "We're heading to Kristoff's friends. He says they can help me out and heal you." she said.

Help with what, I thought. I was pretty sure that you could get rid of highlights. Probably. I don't use them personally and I wouldn't trust anyone to start mixing chemicals in this current day and age but... I finally twigged. The curse thing. That was good. But even better, the trolls.

We stopped moving, Kristoff joining us. "Hey" he called out as he saw me moving.

"How are you doing?" he asked. "Just a heads up..." he started. I motioned for him to continue with my hand.

"So about my friends..." he began again. Why was he so nervous, I thought. his uneasiness was making me uneasy. "Well... I say friends... they're more like family really..." he stammered. Damn it, hurry up ad finish, I thought.

"When I was a kid, it was just me and Sven..." he said.

"Sven and I", I corrected grinning. Naturally my companions ignored me.

"Until they took us in"

"They did?" Anna asked. That was the most boring backstory ever, I thought. Even Bruce Wayne had a more interesting backstory.

"Yeah" smiled Kristoff. "I don't want to scare you... They can be a little inappropriate... and loud." he laughed.

"Very loud. They're also stubborn at times and a little overbearing." he said. "And heavy... Really, really heavy...but you'll get it. They mean well" he stammered.

"Kristoff" Anna said, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder. "They sound wonderful" she said. No, they really don't, I thought but my judgement circuits forbade me from interrupting their budding relationship. Obviously, I was not at one hundred per cent health yet.

Kristoff visibly relaxed. He smiled.

"Okay then. Meet my family!" he said with a flourish.

We had arrived in a large circular valley, with a fair few caves embedded at the sides. Dozens of rocks sat there, unmoving. He moved forward, greeting some of the rocks with a fondness I wouldn't of guessed.

"They're rocks" Anna said, stunned. Her mouth dropped open. Olaf stared in shock.

"He's crazy"

I slid off Sven, falling to the side of the reindeer. Sven joined Kristoff in chatting with the rocks as I crawled my way to a stone wall, making sure there weren't any troll/rock things around. The air here seemed to help me, washing away the pain like a painkiller. I wondered briefly if I should bottle the air here and sell it when I got home.

I was rudely woken from my planning by the movement of the trolls. I had chosen well, meaning none of the balls managed to roll near or over me and they gathered in the centre of the valley around Kristoff. At this point I stuck my fingers in my ears, because I was sure that another song was coming. I can't stand that shit. People really did not start synchronised singing in public places. It was just weird. When did they practice?

The trolls and their little dance however still managed to irritate me even if the clothes, that they literally got from nowhere, made my fellow adventurers look dumb. Not even good cos-play either, I noticed.

The air was doing me good I noted. Medicinal air. I was going to make a fortune out of this place. Healing air, teleportation. Trips. I was definitely selling this to six year old girls. I could just imagine the posters to visit your favourite Disney Princesses. And more importantly, space. Land. Farmland and areas to industrialise. Bring forth the twenty-first century here and let the metropolis grow I thought. Urbanisation. I smiled in glee.

About this time, Anna keeled over which meant good news. As all the trolls gathered round the fallen princess, the chief troll made his entrance. About time I did as well.

"There is strange magic here" he said grandly as he waddled over to Anna.

"Well, you don't say." I said as I too walked in, forcing the trolls to twist their little bodies to meet yet another person. As entrances go, it didn't look to good. Despite the wonders of this air, my body still ached, so I was forced to hold my stomach as I hobbled towards the group.

"If I understood your song..." I began, I didn't but I got the gist of it when I saw the film, "Only an act of true love can thaw a frozen heart." I pulled up short so I was standing over them all. The trolls had parted to let me through, surprise and a little fear in their eyes.

Grand Pabbie nodded. "Correct. But I sense something else." he motioned for me to remove my hand. I complied. With a little pain, I managed to remove my shirt to reveal the wound I ha d sustained. Ignoring the trolls reaction and Anna's own admiring eyes, I knelt down before the old troll. His rocky hands touched the scar left by the attack..

"Magic. Of a healing kind. Incredible" he breathed. He drew something from his loincloth. His other hand grabbed my hand and he drew a knife lightly over my skin, tearing it apart.

"What the Fu-" I started.

"Shh" he scolded. "Concentrate". I did as he requested, letting the little sparks fly over my hand and chest, restoring the skin to almost pristine condition.

Needless to say, Anna and Kristoff were shocked. Couldn't really blame them though as I had successfully managed to hide my magic from even myself. My eyes met the Pabbie's and a sort of understanding passed. In it he sensed that I did not belong here and I sensed his sorrow that he could not help.

And like that my plans of conquest ended. No more home. No money. No PhD. No fame or fortune. I was stuck in the dark ages. Alone. Shit got real, real fast. I considered a tantrum, but it would not help. Instead I drew upon my inner powers of control. Conceal, don't feel. Now, those words sounded familiar. Where did they come from...?

"You need to leave, now." I told Anna and Kristoff, pushing trailing thoughts to the side "Get to Arendelle. Get her to Hans. Stay beside her." I turned to Olaf. "You too buddy." I looked at Pabbie. "I've got another task to do." he nodded.

After a short but '_tearful_' goodbye, my companions left for the city. I faced Pabbie.

"There's more, isn't there" I sighed. He nodded in response. "I can feel something stirring within you. I do not know what it is, but when it wakes, prepare yourself. Your life will change drastically when it does. And only you can determine your alignment." he said. I groaned. More challenges. Well they could all go f*** themselves.

I nodded though.

"Can you look after this?" I asked, handing him my bag.

The most advanced technology this world would ever see for a couple of centuries was inside it and I was giving it away. I took the food and a smaller bag out, but handed the rest to the ancient troll.

"Good luck" he said as I walked of.

We make our own luck, I thought as I made my way towards the North Mountain for a meeting with an emotionally distressed queen.


	10. Chapter 10

_Though silver in your palms weighs light_

_Compared to death by blast or sword,_

_Do not shy the hopeless fight_

_For endeavour is its own reward._

My journey through the forest was uneventful. It involved a lot of walking and circling back. But as long as I kept the North Mountain in front, I was on track. In theory. And for once it worked. The trip gave me lots of time to plan out my next moves. Being grounded here was something I hadn't planned for. Having magical abilities was even more of an anomaly. It seemed as if this place hated people making plans.

Regardless, I plotted hours away. Most of it was testing the limits of my magical prowess. But after hours of messing around, I found little more. Healing was tiring. Lighting bolts were not. Magical constructs like shields or guns only lasted as long as I concentrated. These were the ground rules. But magic doesn't play fair, it is by nature, magic. Which means by definition that these were subject to change. Which is every control freak's nightmare.

It was refreshingly pleasant though to be enjoying only my own company. The silence of night and early morning encouraged my brain to work. However, as life insists that I'm never to enjoy myself, my silent meditation was broken by noise. I could see fire a short distance away. Using well honed stealth techniques I crept closer to the source.

Hans. And his guards. Clearly this was the party sent to retrieve their lost princess. And they were sitting around eating. Resting. How lazy.

I crept in, making my way to their horses. I was running out of time. I needed to outrun them if they were here already. Helping myself to some bread and a bottle of red wine that I recognised from the Duke's own stores, I passed the guards. I finally made my way to the unguarded horses undetected by the sentries and carrying much more food. Idiots, I muttered as I lead one of the horse away from the group, saddling it in the forest.

With transport my quest to the mountain was comparatively quicker and safer. Whilst my riding was poor, it was quicker than walking, even if a little uncomfortable. Within an hour I was once again approaching the queen's ice palace.

I dismounted the horse, encouraging it to run off as I approached the stairs once more. I could see the mound of snow that was Marshmallow, as Olaf called it, prudently deciding to sprint past it after my last engagement. I ran past it, letting him roar and do his whole scare thing. I just ignored it and kept going. Not my smartest move. This version was much more adept than me at climbing the stairs and within minutes was catching up with me.

We ended up entangling at the top of the stairs. He managed to snag my foot, yanking me down. Naturally, I cursed, lashing out with any of my limbs at the snow monster but it did little good. The queen, of course heard the commotion and I saw her peep through the door.

"Um.. Hi" I said. "Don't suppose you'll let me go?" I asked. I held out one arm as I was dangled upside down. She shook her head nervously.

"Look, I brought food!" I exclaimed. She didn't move. Tough crowd. I tried to smile in a friendly manner, an expression that has spent years in the closet gathering dust. She relented. She gave a little nod to Marshmallow and I found myself on the ground, chasing after the queen.

The interior hadn't changed at all. It was the same depressing room, only with an ice table and two chairs that the queen had created for us to sit on and eat. I pooled the meagre food on to it.

"There we go. Bread, alcohol, cheese. Standard food for an adventurers" I said with a grin. I pulled out some of the chocolate I'd bought.

"And Anna said you liked this" I lied. That was film knowledge. She nodded, as she hungrily attacked the chocolate, whilst I opened up the wine. I was really liking this stuff. Especially now.

"Why are you here?" she asked. I paused to take a swig from the bottle. And then I held out my hand, conjuring up a little ball of electricity.

"Magic" I said simply. We both watched the ball flicker with energy. She held out her own, placing it next to mine, willing a ball of ice to accompany my own power. We sat there comparing powers. Mine was better. Mine actually moved. The ice just floated there.

"Oh, probably should of said this earlier but a bunch of men are coming down to break down your door." I said absent-mindedly. The queen almost spat out the bread she was eating. She didn't. She's a queen. But it took a lot of control, I think.

"And you didn't mention this earlier? Wait, no. you led them here. You're conspiring against me." she shrieked, jumping from her chair and backing away from me.

"Don't you think you're over-reac-" I was cut short by a series of ice blasts, having to fall off my chair to avoid them. "Calm down. God, you're worse than Anna. "Don't you remember I was here earlier?". That did the trick. She stopped threatening me with sharp things and cautiously approached me.

"Where is she?"

"Heading towards Arendelle. You froze her heart. Which is what the trolls warned you of all those years ago" I replied smugly. "But seriously, I am here to help." I lifted my arms out slowly, making myself less threatening. Ans thus, less susceptible to ice spear to the face. Or a frozen heart. Because boy was I screwed if I had to find an _act of true love_.

"Were both blessed with magic. Don't you feel alone?" I asked. "You need help to control your emotions" I said. Because this can't happen every month I thought. "I can help". Probably.

Marshmallow roared outside. It looked like Hans had arrived. We both turned towards the sound, Elsa moving towards the door to peek out. She turned back to me "What do I do?" she asked fearfully. "I can't stop the winter!" she exclaimed.

I pointed upstairs. "Then run. Hide. I'll distract them." I said. My brain chided me for doing this again. She nodded, fleeing upstairs as fast as her dress would let her. The door burst open and the dukes guards stepped in.

"Hey guys!" I said, smiling. "Fancy seeing you guys again. Lots has happened since we docked, eh" I said. They recognised me. Thank goodness.

"It's not safe here. Where's the queen?" one of them asked.

I didn't know their names, frankly because they were beneath me. And still were. I pointed upwards, placing a finger to my lips to tell them to be quiet. They nodded their thanks.

The two men raced past me and as they did so I tripped both of them up. Swiping away their crossbows as they fell and pointed my sword at them.

"But I don't think its visiting day" I said. Because that sentence just screamed _funny_, I thought to myself.

"Hey!" yelled someone, I turned and groaned. It was just not my lucky day. Hans and the other guards had made their way past the monster faster than I had expected. Maybe I shouldn't of blasted the poor guy. One guard raised a crossbow, firing a quarrel into my shoulder. I swore, pulling it out and tossing it to the side. Blood covered my hands, but I had more important things to worry about. Namely, not dying. And saving the wine

By now the two Weseltown guards had picked themselves up and were racing up the stairs. I turned to follow, narrowly missing a bunch of crossbow bolts. I turned, to face the Arendelle guards, pushing one into the other before rushing back upstairs, pausing only to swipe the wine off the floor.

As usual the scene in this room did not look good. Elsa was busy pushing one guy of the balcony and threatening to turn the other into a human pincushion. She was more dangerous than me. Which is saying something. Hans was right behind me and took this moment to tell her to stop.

"Don't become the monster, they think you are" he yelled. I would of shouted something marginally helpful as well but one of the guards decided to hit me round the head with his sword hilt. Nice. And I lost track of the wine. Curses. How was I supposed to get drunk now?

Elsa paused and in her hesitation one of the guards raised a crossbow up at the queen. Hans charged down the fellow and I knew then what was going to happen.

I sighed in irritation. This was becoming a bad habit.

Sending a little electric shockwave to stun the guards, I picked myself up from the floor and charged towards the queen. Hans managed to redirect the bolt and with a lucky trickshot severed the chandelier's cable.

I shoulder-barged the queen out of the way and placed a protective bubble around myself, willing my magic to protect me. I braced for impact, wandering again if this was a dream and how on earth (point two) I could of gotten myself into so many tactically unwise decisions. About halfway through my reflections, the chandelier hit me and once more I melted into the darkness.


	11. Chapter 11

_Victory needs no explanation. Defeat allows none._

Being knocked unconscious had become second nature by now. The waking up was equally familiar. However, of them all, waking up in a jail cell has to be the worst. To make it even _better_, someone had decided to put manacles round my hands. Yay.

As I opened my eyes to scan the rest of the room, I realised I was being watched. I twisted, to look at my admirer, which just had to be the queen. My day got better and better. She was in a similar state, manacles locking her to the walls, on the floor like me, just enjoying the castle dungeons. What a fun place to be. Good thing Olaf wasn't here to cheer things up.

I propped myself against the wall, drawing my knees towards me and faced the queen. She looked like she had been crying. I was sure she had also been panicking. Fortunately the cell wasn't completely covered in ice yet so I had a while to live yet before dying of hypothermia. I tried to smile at her, lighten the mood a little, but was met with a gaze of despair. Great. Locked up like a common criminal with a maniacally depressed queen for company.

"Could be worse." I said. She looked up. "Could be dead. Or listening to someone other than me."

Elsa just did not appreciate my attempts to be optimistic. I sighed.

"Hans said Anna isn't here" she whispered. "But you said she would."

Well Hans is almost as good a liar as me I thought. "Hans lied. He's manipulating your sister into becoming the next monarch of Arendelle." I said. "And Anna had to take the long way back after your pet kicked us off the mountain" I spat, a little angry.

She managed to frame a little 'o' with her mouth.

"How do you know?" she asked after an awkward silence. Magic, I thought bitterly. Instead I sighed.

"I might just be the smartest guy on the planet at the moment. Just believe me when I say this, he is up to no good." I said, letting my ego get in the way of common sense. Mind, after the battering it had taken it needed some time to stretch its wings.

"By my reckoning, Anna is already here. No doubt, Kristoff is trudging back sadly and Olaf is terrorising the populace. Anna will fall into Han's arms, ready to be administered the cure for a frozen heart. Hans will then reveal that it's all fake, leaving your sister heartbroken, not realising a possible true love cure...thing is walking away, most probably having a conversation with his dog-like reindeer friend about whether he should go back or not." I told her bluntly, laying our cards on the table.

"Um...Okay. I'll take your word for it." she replied.

"Unfortunately this leaves us with a dead princess, a lonely ice miner, a sociopath on the throne whilst the real queen is lounging around in the dungeons waiting to be executed for treason, primarily because said sociopath is an idiot and thinks he can charge a monarch with treason. And perhaps the greatest tragedy is that the smartest person on the planet will probably follow suit for trying to help

Elsa frowned at my rather pessimistic theorising. I could tell she was going to flip out again. Whoopsy.

I grinned. "Fortunately for you, your majesty, your're stuck in here with me. Now I know what you're thinking. Actually I don't, because I can't follow stupid people's train of thoughts. You're too primitive." I said smiling all the way. This was really boosting my ego. And a happy ego meant some brilliant plan later. It's the way the world works.

"So, to summarise, you're attached to another object by an inclined plane and being wrapped helically around an axis" I said, quoting one of my few idols. Elsa just looked on bewildered. I sighed, primitives. "You're screwed, your majesty. Like well and truly messed up and in a bad situation. But you have the one thing, no-one else has." I started, a little dramatically.

"Let me guess... Hmm... Er...you by any chance?" she said equally dramatic.

"Nope" I said. "One hundred percent wrong" I crowed, not listening to what she was saying. "You just happen to be in a cell with me. And you also have magic. But others probably have the magic, which could level the field... So I'm your ace up your sleeve!" i said triumphantly, flashing a smile at the depressed girl.

"Great" the queen said sarcastically "And what do you plan on doing?"

"Oh, I have no idea." I said smiling. "But when I do..."

The cells temperature dropped about ten degrees. I winced. "You know it's hard to think when you're room-mate plays music. It's even harder when they start fiddling with the thermostat" I told her. She ignored me. Typical, even after my inspirational prep talk she had reverted to throwing tantrums. Maybe I should just kill her and claim the prize.

Or at least lock her up and throw away the key...

Hmm...Worth a shot. "Well, even with you changing the temperature, guess who's come up with a plan?" I grinned triumphantly. "Scoot closer, I need to see your manacles."

The queen complied. With a little improvisation I managed to get a look at the key slot. "Wow. Whoever made these did not think about people with lockpicks" I said. I summoned a pair of thin lockpicks that I thought appropriate, using my own magic to create and temporarily sustain them.

I paused, realising that the electricity from the lockpicks would have a swell time going through the metal manacles. I shrugged. If the queen didn't know then she deserved to get a little shocked. A good science lesson. I inserted the picks into the hole and started using my mind to wiggle them around.

After about a minute, the lock sprang free. It had been a very stressful minute. Primarily because the queen kept yelping in pain. Silly girl. There is no victory without sacrifice. "There you, go. Free. Now tear down that wall over there, localise a storm and escape in the confusion." I ordered.

"That hurt" she complained, rubbing her wrists "And aren't you coming with me?"

At this moment the door started shuddering, men on the other side banging against it. I shook my head. "Looks like our jailers want a word. It'll take too long. You need to unleash your anger on that wall over there and I'm afraid my calming influence means it'll be harder to do so." I replied.

She rolled her eyes, but nodded but focussed on tearing through the wall. Within minutes a large hole had manifested itself in our cell wall. an impressive display of power. Cool.

She looked back at me. "Thank you. For everything."

I waved her off. "Just doing my job. No scram!" i yelled as she ran off into the open world.

The door cell burst open, and at the groups head was Hans. The devil himself. I gestured to the hole. "I think rats did it" I said, smiling.

He took one look at the hole and yelled "Where did she go?!" turning towards me.

Hans had a good plan. Manipulating a princess to get his throne was clever. But he made so many mistakes. Not killing Anna for one. Not keeping guards in cells for another. Letting me live. I can be certain that if I was in charge of that scheme, I would already be king.

"Hmm, let me think." I said. "There's a big hole in a prison cell. Obviously, on making said hole, the queen decided to not use that escape route and go through the door instead, bypassing whatever guards you put on that side and wandering freely around the castle grounds. What do you think happened, Sherlock?" Whilst my Sherlock comment went unappreciated, the guards got the gist of what I was saying. A few even snickered. This did not help the prince's anger issues.

In one movement, he drew his sword and stabbed me in the gut. "Ow." I said, a little surprised. "That hurt". He withdrew the blade, which was wet with blood. "Where is she going?" he growled.

"Not going to tell you nothing" I said smiling through the pain.

"Really?" the prince smiled evilly, which is really my thing. "I think there's something we can do to to change your mind" he drew the blade lightly against my chest, cutting some of the fabric. I gulped. They did not sound like nice things.

"Well, looks like I've changed my mind. Funny that, Eh?" I said, feigning fear.

The prince straightened up. "Good. Now where did the queen go" he asked softly. I didn't say anything.

"Clammed up? And I thought you wanted things to go the easy way." Hans said, a little irritated.

"I do. Which is why I'm not saying a word" I replied

"Then answer me!" he cried out

I smiled. "No... I said 'not going to say nothing', which is a double negative, thus implying I will help you. Unfortunately, being one step above an ape meant you inferred this incorrectly. So really you just said you want me to say nothing at all. Which is what I was doing." I grinned triumphantly.

"Um... you do know I'm procrastinating right? Because it would be real awkward if you didn't. I mean, you can't all be as stupid as 'side-burns' here can you?" i asked innoncently, grinning a grin that had earned a couple of broken noses and a fair few black eyes.

Right words at the wrong time. Story of my life: not being able to shut up. Hans followed through with his offer of torture and boy was it unpleasant.

**Good day! Well... I managed to get a release schedule kind of planned (mondays and fridays) as well as typing some of the story. So things are looking okayish on that front. thanks for keeping with me. Feel free to review, i can take your criticism...**


	12. Chapter 12

_The meaning of victory is not to merely defeat your enemy but to destroy him, to eradicate him from living memory, to leave no remnant of his endeavours, to crush utterly his every achievement and remove from all record his every trace of existence. From that defeat no enemy can recover. That is the meaning of victory._

Hans slashed through the skin on my left arm, the blade slicing through muscle, drawing blood as it passed. I cried out again. My body was covered in similar scars. My blood stained the floor. I'd lost control of most movement, and that which remained sent pain coursing through the nerves still intact. "Where is she?" he asked again.

I moaned, spat at his feet and said "she's behind you."

The joke had fallen flat after the first time when he actually checked, but after five minutes of torture it had lost any humour. The prince's reply was to drive his sword point through my shoulder and twist. I howled in pain. This was new. And unfortunately hurt more.

"The fjord, you idiot. Where else? The f***ing moon?" I hissed, finally relenting. Hans didn't find that amusing either. Someone's fist smashed into my jaw, dislocating it and knocking my teeth about.

But he wasn't finished yet. He sheathed his sword and then picked me up. "Lets go give the queen my coronation gift" he snarled as he ran out through the hole and into a blizzard with poor little me over his shoulder. The cold may not bother the Elsa, but it sure as heck bothered me. I could feel my life draining away, quite literally as my blood made a nice little trail for people to follow. It didn't take long for Hans to find the queen. Apparently, just looking for trouble is his speciality. Almost as good as me.

"Queen Elsa" he called out. "Look around you." he threw me to the floor, for the queen to see, probably. I did hear a little gasp but for all I know she could quite literally of slipped over or sprained a toe or something equally stupid.

"He died because you left him" he told her.

Lies! I wasn't dead yet, just mostly dead. Dying would be a better way to put it. Surprisingly this morbid talk of my fate did not lift my spirits. It actually deflated them, which was pretty impressive considering how deflated they were already. Pleased at being able outwit even my nascent pessimism I tuned my ears to the coming events.

I would have used my eyes but one was no longer working due to the prince's sword and the other was gummed up with blood. Fortunately my ears were working. Kind of.

"Princess Anna is dead. She came back, cold as ice" Hans was saying.

I heard a melodramatic "No!" and I was able to distinguish the sound of Hans' sword being drawn.

Seconds later, I heard an unmistakeable voice cry out "Elsa!"

Seconds after that was the nasty sound of a sword shattering as Anna presumably jumped in the way of the sword. This was it. The end. Hans defeated. Anna kind of dead but also still alive (Schrödinger's human popsicle?), Elsa still in one piece (physically if not mentally) and Kristoff... happy? Even still...

Victory.

I could die knowing my job was complete. Success at the very end. My senses faded, I lost track of the conversation, some rubbish about love thawing or something. Even that couldn't dampen my spirit.

I felt the ice give way and I sank into the sea. Typical. They just happened to be on a boat. I was literally lying about five metres away and I got the sea. Great. Not that it mattered to the dead, but whilst I was living, I did not want get wet.

My body sank beneath the waves, oxygen abandoning me. Not a bad way to go, I though. Drowning is apparently quite peaceful. I could just tell they were all hugging up there. Just ignoring me, even though I was pivotal in screwing up their adventure and sewing it back together again. You can't just die without at least one complaint can you?

Water filled my lungs, pushing any remaining air our. I could feel my heart slow, no more oxygen to pump. My brain would die to. No going back without that. I wandered if they would start skating soon. Bloody happy endings, doing all sorts of stuff you wouldn't normally do. Life, loathe it or ignore it, you can't like it, am I right?

It was at this point that I realised there was a significant amount of not dying going on. Milliseconds later after this revelation, the voice started to speak.

"I have awoken, my friend." it said. It was grand and slow. Very lordly I suppose. "Your journey is yet to begin, young one" he said, chuckling. Great, if this was a bloody prologue I did not want to see the ending I thought. Unfortunately, the voice knew what I was thinking.

It chuckled again "No. Your journey will be long and arduous and-"

I cut him off, "Clichéd?" I offered. Silence. Yeah, I told you, I thought.

"You lacked faith before. But now things have changed. Dare to hope once more, friend. Dare to live. Draw upon our divine power. Live, thrive... Prosper. Make a difference." the voice sound.

"Um... Okay? Now what?" I thought. For once someone replied. Once more magic flooded my body, restoring failing organs, systematically repairing my body. Movement. At last. Survival.

I kicked, propelling myself towards the surface driven by a primordial human desire, hope. I broke the surface quietly, gasping as I emptied my lungs of water and filled them with oxygen. I swam in place, looking at the world around me. It did not feel like a place I could particularly thrive in. Well some things don't change I guess.

I heard a splash. Behind me Hans had just been punched into the water. That was one mighty punch. Unfortunately he was still conscious and began swimming away. One thing filled my mind as I saw his attempt to escape. Revenge. Maybe not the noblest of emotions but when have I ever been noble?

I felt the air grow cold, the sky itself darkened. No clouds appeared but from the very heavens came a series of lightning strikes. They ended miles above the sea, but this was just starting. I summoned my own lightning bolts, poor replicas of the previous but powerful nonetheless. And I let the bastard have it.

His screams of pain as I sent volts of electricity coursing through his body were music to my ears. I didn't kill him. But I sure did incapacitate his ability to escape. I groaned inwardly. That had left me really tired. My body wasn't fully healed yet and pain began to reappear, spots dancing before my eyes. Whoops. I wondered if that voice thing would be pissed if I died again, minutes after his speech. I grinned. It would be worth a shot.

With that plan fresh in my head, it was only natural it was dashed apart within seconds. Seriously now, what are wrong with my plans? Do I have to start planning for this anti-plan conspiracy? That would be fun i guess.

Someone dived in next to me and paddled towards me. Strong arms, that could only belong to Kristoff, supported me and attached something extremely cold to my clothes. Within minutes I was being hoisted up like some sort of fish by the queen whilst Kristoff supported me.

They deposited me gently on the ships deck, which was just as well considering my body was still protesting against any and all forms of movement. Someone started whispering words of comfort in my ear, but I ignored them, instead choosing that time to go to sleep and wait for the lifeguard or something to save this ship from sailing off.

Not as good as death, but still pleasant. Maybe.


	13. Chapter 13

_Only the insane have strength enough to prosper;_

_Only those who prosper, truly judge what is sane_

Over the last two days, I had woken up to found myself in some very unpleasant places. Thankfully, with the closure of this _adventure_, I managed to wake up in a thoroughly comforting room. Relief soared through my brain, translating into something of a more cheerful mood.

I found myself safely tucked into a large bed, in a well-decorated room. I was also alone, which was even better. No-one to threaten me or point some weapon towards me. Surprisingly, It was refreshingly tranquil. Well rested, I sat up, throwing up the covers and began to explore the room.

Explore is the wrong word. Really just look around. See what's what. There wasn't much. But someone had placed a jug of water and a bottle of wine on a desk, nestled in the corner. Naturally I reached for the alcohol.

"I don't think that's wise." said the voice in my head. Damn. That thing again. I sighed.

"Surely you know the effects of wine on your metabolism?" it said. I did and if my previous experiences were anything to go by, it felt good. Till the morning anyway. Then it hurt.

"Who are you?" I asked wearily. "Are you my conscience?" I did not want one of those.

"I am Xanthious, King of dragons. Or was, rather. It was me within that rock. It was me that brought you here and it is my power that has been bequeathed to you."

I sighed. Dragons. This was definitely someone's f**cked up magical realm. Magic, dragons, trolls and Disney characters. This was getting out of hand.

"So it's your fault I'm stuck here instead of celebrating my assortment of PhD's?"

"You should not of interfered if you did not want to come. You poked me first. I simply deemed you appropriate." he replied. "You were compatible." he said smartly.

Xanthious was really ruining my mood. "So, uh...What do you want? I distinctly remember 'was a king' so... is that important?" I asked.

Silence. I bet the voice was nodding. Too bad it was a voice so I couldn't tell, the stupid brute. "Let me show you" he whispered.

"Really. How?" I replied sceptically. This guy was seriously ambiguous. Just a little more exposition please, I thought.

A sudden flash took me from my nice new dormitory to some dusty plains. It was also black and white. It reminded me of Pabbie's photoshopping skills at the start of the movie, except I was awake. I also hated the lack of colour.

Sensing my frustration, the vision shimmered and colour was injected into the scene. Only one colour really mattered. Red. For blood. The fields resembled an abattoir. The carcass of dragons littered the nearby hills, whilst the bodies of dead humans surrounded them. "Nice. This is definitely an eighteen." I mumbled to myself.

The real fight was further away. I willed myself closer and started floating towards the conflict. It was rather like the pensive in Harry Potter. Cool, I guess. If it wasn't so damn gory.

As I neared I could make out a group of dragons, fighting against a veritable horde of humans. Primitive siege weapons, tossed lumps of stone and dirt towards the magnificent beasts, impacting heavily against their scales.

Xanthious began to talk. Great, narration. Always makes the film better.

"Behold the last stand of dragonkind. The day magic was let loose on the planet. The day we died" he said softly and a little too dramtically for my liking.

The dragons shimmered in as many colours as the rainbow. Some wore red scales, breathing fire. Another blasted humans back with wind, encased in a snowy white armour. Dull, earthy brown dragons attacked humans with stone tipped claws and scales of hardened rock. Blue water dragons used water magic against the poor humans.

"Dragons have always been the forefathers of modern magic. We wielded the winds of arcane energies long before humans. We are the ancestors of the trolls and elves. The rulers of this planet." he explained. "Magic is at the heart of all dragons, our abilities influencing our scales. The living embodiment of the World's magic" he continued.

This was tiring. It probably didn't help that i'm not all that good at listening. instead, i played with the view, soaring around in little circles round the battle, wondering whether how similiar my own sweeping views were to Peter Jackson's. I was only paying a quarter of attention to the dragon guy. not that it noticed.

"As the only dragon of gold and yellow, nature indicated I was to rule. So had it been for generations. The king wielding the powers of light and cloaked in only the rarest colours." he boasted. I could see him at the front. The king breathed living lightning instead of fire, his scales glinting on the sun. For a race so primitive, it was understandable that they made such a magnificent creature their lord.

"Dragons ruled fairly over all else. As the embodiment of the elements it was only natural that we did so. This planet was peaceful. Till mankind came." he said. A little biased I thought. The dragon king continued on, ignoring me as usual.

"From the first, Man seeked our power, causing trouble as they migrated, spreading throughout the planet like a plague."

"Thanks"

"Humanity constantly usurped our control, warring with themselves as much as the other races. Until Archo, the prophet, came along"

"What he just appeared? Or didn't you pay attention to us primitive apes?" I asked sarcastically. The king did not know how to tell a story. Or give good exposition.

Xanthious blundered on. Still ignoring me. Why was I even here?

"Archo, the deceiver, united the warring factions of humanity and in a desperate grasp of power led them to war against us. He sought magic, for humans were born with none and propagated the mass extinction of my race in his foolish bid for knowledge."

"Did he get it?"

"Yes. Upon our deaths our magic was unleashed. We contained the elemental winds and without the guardians magic roamed free. The powers of my kin were scattered throughout the world and certain humans were seeded with extraordinary gifts." he spat, losing his cool for once.

"So...Er... We're the bad guys right...? And Archo did seem to get what he wanted... so how exactly was he a fool?" I asked. Really it seemed like a basket of sour eggs to me. Keeping hold of far too many regrets.

"Archo is cloaked in the foul magic of the dark. The one wind of magic that we refused to use. Powerful to be sure, which means he is your arch-enemy. The dark is permanently pitted against light. It plays out every day."

"Thanks! You got me a nemesis already? I haven't even met the guy!" I exclaimed. What did he expect me to do? Get rid of some supposed evil dude who was human on the whim of a dragon. A dragon. Like, aren't they the bad guys?

"On my death, my soul was scattered. But the blessing of light protects his servants and I reformed as a spirit, kept alive by force of will. An entity that could not manifest on this planet. So I fled. I deemed this planet lost and darted into the cold void you call space. For ten thousand years, I travelled. At the speed of light itself and using magic to cross unfathomable distances. To reach my own soul-mate" he finished.

This left me reeling. First he managed to travel through space. Really really far. Magic had some interesting properties if it only took ten thousand years...which also meant this was a different planet. Earth, my Earth was somewhere else, out there. Which means life, flourished in the galaxy. Yes! I was right! Life elsewhere to explore and do other various awesome stuff with!

Then it hit me. 'Soul-mate'. "Wow. Calm down. I...Er... you do know... I'm definitely not..." I paused bewildered. My soul-mate was apparently a dragon king from a different planet. The F*** was wrong with this place? Xanthious sensed my confusion.

"Not like that. We are compatible. Your characteristics resemble mine. Despite being human, you are dragon-like. Vain, arrogant and proud. Traits of a fine dragon."

"Thanks" I grumbled. He made being human sound like a bad thing. You never heard the dodo call out vendettas do you?

"We are similar and you do not share the same birth world as me. Which means my spirit saw a kindred soul and we were able to combine. Half-human and half-dragon for the first time. Combining two species that should not co-exist, through mutual traits. We are one now." he seemed awfully pleased with screwing up my life for his own selfish needs.

"Your race grew up without magic. Your very role in human society is to explain the universe without one of its principle building blocks. Your race is greatly superior to this one, despite being thousands of years younger. You are proof, that human kind does not need magic to prosper." he told me, carelessly refuting some of the greatest minds my race had owned and their work.

"It is only fitting that the saviour of this planet is human. You ruined this ecosystem. Now fix it. As a lord of light and scientist guide humanity from the darkness that lies within each of you" he crowed. Down before me the last dragon died. It roared in anguish as hundreds of spears tore through scales and rocks cracked bone. The death cry of an entire species.

Xanthious had really thrown me into the deep end now.


	14. Chapter 14

**Well... this isn't then end. I've been finding this work really relaxing (sometimes) so, with a little bit of plot manipulation ,Cough! _Predictable Mary sue alert!_ Cough!, I've managed to extend the time writing. As always feedback is super duper helpful, because my English grade needs to improve (massively). Anyway...**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

><p><em>Nobody is innocent, there are only varying levels of guilt<em>

I was gracefully returned to my human body. With a gasp of air, I immediately checked my surroundings. Everything seemed... normal. The vision was so magical... well of course it was. And now I had the consequences of a rather angry king dragon rattling about in my head. Definitely time to crack open that wine bottle.

Fortunately, my old luck returned to me and as I sat down on my bed, wine bottle in hand, someone knocked. I froze as the door opened and the person walked in. Dressed in what could only be a healer's garb and carrying a suitcase filled with all sorts of stupid cures and incorrect medical equipment, was the castle's doctor. I guess. It could also be someone dressing up but this place did not seem the type of country where people impersonated their peers.

He frowned when he saw the wine bottle in my hand.

"I did tell them not to put that in here. You are, apparently, recovering from serious injuries." he said.

He was rather old. With a long white beard he reminded me a lot of Dumbledore. Or Gandalf the white. Because there's a difference. The doctor looked over me once more, putting his suitcase on my desk..

"Not that there seems to be much wrong with you. But the queen insisted..."

"Nah. It's all good now. Look I can even get drunk without too many short-term side effects" I told him, brandishing the bottle. I popped open the cork and took a swig. This was just as good as the dukes. With a little more of a fruity after taste. That seemed nice... I grinned and the doctor took the message. He picked up his case and walked out, muttering under his breath.

After a few minutes I was faced with the unhappy prospect of an empty bottle. I placed it down and looked at the water. I was no longer quite as thirsty. I turned back to face the window. The courtyard had been frozen all over.

Someone, no doubt the queen, had decided that what everyone needed after losing control was an ice skating rink. In summer. I shook my head. This place was nuts. Probably why they hadn't thrown me out after hearing my complete bullshit of a story

I quickly made up my bed, carefully placed the bottle on the desk and started re-arranging the room to suit my own aesthetic preferences. And my slight OCD problem. Satisfied, that the room got the optimal amount of natural light (very little) and the maximum amount of candle light (I needed to replace those things), I pulled on the spare set of clothes that someone had placed in the room.

Looking acceptable in my clothes, I started work on making sure my appearance was impeccable After everyone seeing the rather unkempt adventurer look, I needed a fresh start to stop them all from judging me twenty-four seven. If Smaug point-two wanted me to lead the sheep, then I had to look the part of an awesome shepherd.

Whilst my concept of fashion may be as non-existent as my social skills, I was able to make myself presentable and formal. I noticed that I was lacking toothpaste and brush, which sucked. I did not know how to make that chemical formula. And I was pretty sure the barbarians didn't have it either. Damn my luck and once really white teeth. Maybe Disney magic could keep them clean...

I shrugged, gave myself one last brush to keep the hair down and made to the door. As I approached, I could hear some high-pitched giggling on the other side.

"Let me help you, please. Everyone says he's gorgeous..".

"No way. It's on my shift, so I get to tend to him... Uh... I mean his room." another said. I sighed.

Couldn't they keep their gossip to themselves? They could of woken me up if I was still sleeping. And all that nonsense was even necessary. Presumably, whomever they were talking about would have chosen an ideal mate already. Cleaning his room would definitely not help their cause to mate with him. People. How silly to get worked up on these things.

I flung open the door, catching the two young girls off guard. They turned around quickly, blushing furiously.

"Oh, sorry...Sir. I was...Er... Just going to clean your...room... my lord." one of them stuttered. The other nodded. I let the two brunettes see into my room.

"No need for that. I think you can just pass this one. I've already done your job, I guess." I said, gesturing at the interior. It was indeed spotless. Such is the curse of being a control freak.

They nodded and I marched of, completely lost within my first few steps. I could hear them sighing in relief as I passed. As I turned, I could hear their incessant giggling again. What is wrong with people. Control your emotions I thought as I walked down a set of stairs, with no idea of where to go.

After about ten minutes of wandering around aimlessly, I finally made it the banquet hall. Which is actually a lot less impressive than the name sounds. Really just a big room with a big table in. As I entered, I was immediately met with a chorus of pleasantries from its occupants. Which was another first. Usually it was a chorus of accusations followed by insults. How strange.

I sat down at the closest chair and immediately began helping myself to the simple selection of food before me. My inherent laziness meant I was seated right next to Elsa and opposite Anna, with Olaf not too far away. Kristoff was right next to Anna and a multitude of servants moved about the table like a flock of vultures. Which isn't really a good simile when I think about it. Or comforting after my traumatic adventure.

Everybody smiled as I sat down.

"How are you feeling?" asked Anna. I think. I just nodded as my mouth was busy. I finished it, gulping down the remnants.

"All fine. Performing at a satisfactory rate." I managed to reply. I called for a bottle of wine. This may of just become an addiction. But a good one.

"How are you?" I reciprocated. That is the standard protocol for conversation I believe.

Anna nodded in reply, smiling. "Never been better. The curse is gone, the castle gates are open and my life is filled with the people I love!" she beamed at us all. Jeez. I didn't ask for a detailed analysis of everything. She held up her hair to indicate that there was in deed no longer any strands of white.

"Looks better doesn't it?" she asked. Everyone was nodding. Oblivious to everyone else, I shrugged.

"Could be worse" I told her. I returned to my drink. I was much more thirsty now for some reason.

The conversation returned to the celebrations outside. The ice skating for example. I was repeatedly asked to join them celebrating their triumph. I refused. Eventually the queen commanded me to go. I refused to budge, playing the lord commander card again. Unfortunately, my stoic protests went unnoticed and they ended up literally picking me up and carrying me outside.

"Put me down! I'll bite." I warned as they lifted me up

"Relax!" laughed Anna "Even Elsa is enjoying herself" she said smiling.

Elsa nodded. "It's not good to shut your self in all th-. Aarrgh!" she cried out. "He just tried to bite me!"

"I warned you, put me down. And if I knew what sort of pathogens were marching about on your skin I would of carried it thro-" I was cut short by a block of ice that firmly wedged itself around my jaw.

Watching the party was not fun. Taking part in the party was not fun. Drinking at the party was fun until Elsa placed some guards round me to stop me from drinking. Walking back was okay. Primarily because I was tired and not in the slightest drunk. I think my powers stopped me from getting so. Shame. After Xanthious had just let that bomb I needed to drown my sorrows. And then myself for good measure.

**Thanks for reading this far, even if you skipped to this bit, it means a lot that people actually bother to click on the button... things. Sorry for the rather uninteresting exposition splurge, but it will pick up in a couple of chapters time. Have a great day now!**


	15. Chapter 15

_Sensing weakness our foes gather for the kill. They know, as we know, that night approaches and all mortal life shall be extinguished, We know, as they cannot, that there shall be a new dawn and a new day when we will rise and they will be driven into the darkness forever._

The next day was much more peaceful. Kind of. Elsa immediately began her duties as queen, which probably involved all sorts of fun, important things. Kristoff spent most of the day preparing to get back to the ice lakes within the mountain, to tap the few blocks of ice that nature hadn't thawed yet. So Anna was bored. And who did she go to then?

So yeah. FUN.

The day started nice enough though. With my life not in constant danger there was no need to constantly worry about being skewered, shot, bitten and just generally put in some stupefyingly dangerous situations. As a result, I decided to answer the more important questions. Namely, how can science prove that the magic is not magic and is in fact science. Yes, that is the title of the paper.

Unfortunately, I had to start at the beginning. Namely, getting my head round the various winds of magic. Xanthious actually proved helpful, for once, teaching me about the lineage of dragons and how wind streams crossed to create new sub-elements. Pretty fascinating stuff if it didn't routinely urinate over well established laws of physics.

Magic was like another dimension I suppose. One I hadn't previously had access to. But now, I had the key. I did have to use my magic for actual stuff, like stopping power-hungry humans, but I could BS my way through those scenarios. No, the scientist inside was making notes on just what was magic, because it was exciting to explore something new.

Then Anna came in.

"What ya doing?"

"Working" I grunted, seated at my desk, furiously scribbling my notes.

She flopped onto my bed, bored out of her mind. "Come onnnn." she moaned. "Lets go into town."

"Can't. Working. Important." I grunted again, finishing the paragraph I was on. I dipped the quill into the pot again to start a new sentence.

Anna spent one hour by my side. One hour. It took one hour of her constantly moaning before I gave up. I sighed, shuffled my papers into some sort of pile and nodded.

"Fine." I huffed. "We'll do it your way."

"Yesss!" she cried out. "You're the best Cato" she exclaimed before racing downstairs. I sighed again and made my way to the front doors, wishing that she could find someone else to bother. Why is it always me?

The day was pretty much normal. For once, no one threatened to remove my tongue, tear out my heart or insult me. Even still, it was boring as frak. Anna insisted that we take a look at everything the city had, which was vaguely interesting. The city had lots of stores in different districts set kilometres apart.

It was exhausting keeping up with her. I prefer shopping online, because I don't have to leave the room I'm in. That was pretty much a no-go, even though she's the f***ing princess and can do whatever the hell she wants, I still have to follow her tour the most boring place on Earth point-two.

I decided to skip dinner in favour of more work, to try to catch up the time I'd missed.

Then Elsa came in. Great. Waste even more time.

"Are you busy?" she asked softly, hanging outside the room.

"Yes" I grunted, trying to get the quill to work.

"Oh. Um... Well, I was going to see the trolls... and well...". What is it with people stuttering. Do they think before they talk? Damn it irritates me.

"Yes?" I encouraged, motioning with my hands that time was short and to finish the sun exploded.

"Oh, sorry. Uh, well I was going to see the trolls and well, I wouldn't mind if you...er came along with me. You know, because we're both curs- I mean, gifted and...So... Do you want to go? Kristoff says you know the way..."

"Yeah, yeah I'll go. Just come and get me when you're ready" I told her. I was only half listening, I'd managed to get the quill working which meant I could focus on my writing. Starting up again was really difficult because I'd been on to some pretty important discoveries on the correlation between 'magic' and science. Well not really, it was more focussing on what laws hadn't been broken by the introduction of 'magic' into the playing field.

My work kept me up for hours. I ended up sleeping late, far too worried about the questions my work was raising than mere sleep. But in the end, I succumbed to it, lying down to rest my tired eyes and hands.

When I got up, I skipped breakfast again to make more time for work. I was making some breakthroughs. Whilst I was nowhere nearing actually proving the absence of 'magic', I was understanding my own abilities more. It gave me more options with my abilities. Not just to stab people, although It was useful to have a such a range of ways to defend myself, but also to use electricity to help me bleed the country dry and retire nice and rich. The possibilities were endless!

The whole idea of sub-types was, in a way, creating genetic diversity. The offspring of two magically gifted parents usually had a combined power of the two, creating a sub-element wielding offspring. Things just got wacky as generations came and went, with certain elements almost vanishing, whilst others became dominant.

Of course, with the loss of natural magical beings, the magical genes can only prosper through the genetic passing of magic to a child, or , which seemed more frequent, the result of being 'contaminated' with a shard of a magical soul. Apparently this happens more frequently because most magic users get hung, burnt or sworded. Which explains why people can still do magical shit when their parents can't.

Each stream of magic infuses the world around it, basically acting as mother nature. But a particular stream is drawn to those with 'magical genes' or soul shard which allows them to bend it to their will. In specific ways. Which actually means cross-elemental wielders use multiple stream and I theorised that this is what gave them so much mana to use, because they can tap into more rivers of magical energy.

So Elsa can build a castle in one night whilst singing, whereas I struggle to create small light constructs to manipulate. Pretty neat though.

This was a pretty big leap in magical understanding. Combine magic with the techno know-how of the twenty-first century makes a pretty formidable team. And implies that a lot of money can be made from it.


	16. Chapter 16

_This is a dark and terrible era where you will find little comfort or hope. If you want to take part in the adventure, then prepare yourself now._

I spent half the day working. Really, what was holding me back was the lack of research. The castle libraries had very little and Xanthious could only know so much about other types of magic. It was frustrating being pegged so far back. I needed more people to experiment on. I missed lunch as well.

So it was a surprise when Elsa came in.

"Are you ready?" she asked.

"Huh? For what?" I grunted eloquently, quill scratching away as I tried to consolidate my hurling thoughts.

"For the trip. I need to discuss some things...Are you listening?"

"No...Yes, I'm listening." I sighed as I stopped writing. Elsa looked kind of annoyed. It hadn't even been a month yet!

"We can leave now, just let me..." I started, hastily shuffling my papers into an organised mess.

We met outside the stables ten minutes later. Five minutes after that we were riding to wherever the trolls were.

"So which way?" Elsa enquired.

"What? You don't know? Why didn't Kristoff tell you?" I exclaimed incredulously.

"You said you did now" she cried out

"Oh... did I? Are you sure...?" I said, cringing slightly.

"Yes!"

"Errm. Well... I suppose I do know of the way" I said, fishing around for the route we needed to take. Elsa was giving me some very chilling looks.

It only took two hours to get to the trolls. Which I think was a success when you consider I had very little to go on. I didn't bother to find out what the Queen thought because she was still pissed.

Dismounting, I made a beeline to Grand Pabbie, the trolls giving way to me. It felt pretty good. The old troll greeted us like old friends. I have no idea where he got that impression from.

Elsa greeted him cordially, dismissing the frosty aura she'd generated whilst riding with me. They began to talk about all sorts of boring things, discussing the previous week's actions. Me? I was content to be reunited with my bag of goodies.

I pulled each device out, carefully inspecting the gadget for any signs of tampering or damage. They looked good. Even my lunch had stayed fresh. I knew I should have taken some bottles to catch the air. It did a lot of good.

They talked for a long time. And even my constant fiddling did not excuse me from their conversation.

"So... You know what to do?" Pabbie asked me. I nodded glumly. I had a lot of stuff to do. And I didn't want to do any of it.

"Good. It seems that for the time being we have peace again." he said, nodding. "But beware, things are stirring that have not stirred for aeons." he finished. Of course. More bad things to run from. He looked at me, as if sensing that the malicious activity was my own fault, which it probably was.

I nodded, evading his glare and made my way back to the horses, slightly confused, but mostly in a bad mood. Being told that bad stuff is going to happen does that.

The journey back through the forest paths were awkwardly silent. Elsa had thankfully calmed down from earlier and we trotted back to the city in relative silence.

It did not last long.

"What are you going to do now?" Elsa asked me, breaking the silence. I twisted in my seat to face her.

"Dunno." I shrugged. "Not much here... I was thinking of becoming a pirate..." I told her untruthfully.

She smiled. "A pirate? Surely you wouldn't resort to such a criminal profession would you Cato?" she replied.

I grinned in response. "Seems pretty easy. With my magic I could easily become the king of the sea. Don't worry, your majesty, I'll only pick on the easy ships, like the Southern Isles or Weseltown's.

Elsa nodded to herself, mulling over some thoughts. "Well... Seeing as I'd much rather you didn't resort to piracy and well... I don't really know anyone else with...magic..." she started, trying to avoid eye contact with me for some reason.

"So...I wouldn't mind if you stayed here...at the castle. Anna said that you were a bodyguard...? We could always employ you..." she tailed off, looking rather nervous.

I smiled inwardly. This was what I wanted all along, I mean I get motion sickness which rules piracy out. And it would be pretty handy having a powerful ice queen to hide behind.

"That sounds like a much better idea than piracy. I guess I don't mind picking up my old title again; it'll be refreshing to have a fellow magician with me...again" I told her, keeping true to my made up background.

She smiled genuinely for the first time in a while and we spent the next half hour discussing my contract. Which was obviously designed to benefit me more than her. Not that she realised.

Our talks were stopped by a sudden crack of a branch. Something was moving near us. We both froze and surveyed our surroundings. This was difficult because it was pitch black.

Another snap. This time, to our left. Elsa bravely volunteered me to check it out. I nodded, cursing inwardly at my bad luck. I smoothly dismounted and crept towards the source of the sound.

I surveyed the ground, struggling to make out the objects on the ground in the moonlight. Nothing. I twisted, intending to get back on my horse and run when I noticed the gleam.

Metal. As I looked at it, the metal grew as the wielder drew it out. Simultaneously, a group of bandits surged from the forest and attacked.

"Run" I screamed, drawing my own blade as a bandit attacked me. I threw myself to the ground, flowing past a strike that would have severed my arm. Three men were running towards me. I couldn't see how Elsa was doing because at that moment the only person who mattered was me.

I parried one strike and slashed at an attacker, forcing him to jump back. A mistake. My strike left me open and the two remaining swords jabbed at my opening. I twisted, escaping with small cuts along my chest and adopted a defensive stance.

"Watch your feet" whispered Xanthious. "Careful now. They outnumber you. No rash decisions" he cautioned

"Shut up" I grunted, blocking two hits and dodging another. With a flick of my sword hand, I temporarily disarmed one assailant, sending him scurrying after his sword. I caught one strike on the hilt and threw the man back a couple of steps and blocked a series of flowing strikes from the third. As our swords met, I sent a burst of magic through the locked blades, sending lethal energies into the man's body, sending him sprawling into the dirt.

By this time the other two had recovered and once again faced me off. "Death to the witch!" they cried as they charged me, blades glinting in the meagre light.

"Cato!" called Elsa, racing towards me, with a small group of bandits after her. She gestured at my opponents, before sending a series of ice spears towards us.

"NO! Do-" I was cut off as two spears of ice impacted heavily against my chest, sending me flying further into the forest, knocking me out immediately.


	17. Chapter 17

_An open mind is like a fortress with its gate unbarred and unguarded_

I woke up groggily. How many times had I had to do this recently? Too many. I picked myself up off the ground slowly, moving aching joints as I did so.

"It's good to see you're awake" Xanthious told me. "It was looking pretty serious"

I sighed. "What happened?" I looked about. I was still in the forest. Two men lay frozen nearby and a third was sprawled on the ground a couple of metres away.

"Ambush. Eight men attacked you and the queen. Three dead, but the others knocked out the queen and took her away. During the fighting the queen hit you with her ice whilst trying to help you." he told me. "A lover's tiff" he joked.

Typical. She just had to of critically failed and hit me with her magic. And I was in trouble with Anna now...

"Our magic has kept you alive the past couple of hours. It's nothing serious..." he trailed off.

"What" I asked impatiently.

"Elsa hit you with her powers. Specifically... your heart." he said bluntly. "And your head, left arm, most of your fingers and possibly managed to inflict damage on your internal digestive system. But really, it's the heart that's the problem." he completed, trailing of my various injuries like a child's sodding Christmas wish lift

Superb. Not only would I be expected to rescue the queen, but I would also be doing so whilst under the affects of a frozen heart. And trying to find a f***ing act of true love.

"Why haven't I frozen yet? That was a pretty big bit of ice that hit..."

"Magic. Your own powers counteract the damage done. But, it will be mentally taxing to bear the pain."

I nodded. Now what?

"Where did they go?" I asked hopefully.

"I don't know. I can only sense things in the immediate vicinity."

How helpful. I walked over to the dead bandits. _Death to the witch_, they'd said. So clearly... against magic. And they're clothing... It was still summer. Early morning meant it was a little chilly to start with but surely they didn't need all that clothing. Which implied they'd been somewhere cold.

And there was only one place I knew that matched the description. The ice palace. Well, actually, being new to the town meant there could be fifty other places more likely but pessimism like that would only deepen my depression, already at an all time low after the friendly fire incident.

Xanthious agreed with my deduction. We turned round to face the ever imposing north mountain. Trekking back there would be fun...

"You're half dragon. Embrace your ancestral privilege. Fly to the palace." he scolded.

I paused mid-stride. That was actually a good idea. I just had to imagine something out of my powers and create a light construct. I was pretty sure my magic allowed me to make semi-real objects that only I could manipulate. My studies _had_ suggested that this was the case...

I stood thinking on my mode of transport. With so many possibilities it was hard to come up with something cool to make.

But after many minutes of deliberation, I ended up settling with a jump pack, using thrusters to temporarily launch me into the air before slamming back down with force. Noisy, messy and way too much fun. The light formed a glowing replica of the pack, looking more like an image than an object that could actually be wielded. But it worked and I enjoyed blasting into the air on wings of flame.

It took little time to blast my way to the palace. About half a kilometre away, I ditched the pack, letting it disappear as my focus changed. Primarily to one of self-conservation.

It looked like my hunch was right. Horses were tied down at the edge of the forest, with the palace looming above. This was what I was attacking. FUN.

There didn't look like anywhere I could sneak in. so I did the next best thing. Walk brazenly across the stairs. Perhaps not the best plan. But it worked. Or rather, no-one noticed, presumably they were all too busy with cult rubbish than to keep an eye out for rescuers or door-to door salesmen.

Once inside, I quickly made my way to the shadows, using the dark to hide me. I could feel Xanthious raging at this blatant lack of fear for the dark and disrespect of his own affinity. But he could sod off, I was in charge now. I stealthily made my way up the palace, working on the age old assumption that the damsel was at the top of the tower.

I was wrong. Actually at the top was all the bad guys, just chilling as they waited for someone. Or something. Even still, I knew better than to interrupt their free time and quickly descended the stairs. Darting through some of the unexplored rooms at the bottom of the palace, I found the queen.

Elsa was in a similar condition as the cell back in Arendelle. Except more rope held her in place. And she hadn't managed to escape yet. Sighing with relief that she wasn't dead and that Anna wouldn't be as mad, I rushed over to untie her.

I debated whether I should remove the gag that stopped her from talking, settling on a no because otherwise she'd start talking and whining and I'd have to hear all about how horrible it was- yeah, no way was I getting on that train early.

Her eye's widened, probably with hope as I darted across, my fingers trying to unravel the knots that someone had made. Not as easy as you'd think to be honest. And of course, with my luck, someone stirred behind me.

Something heavy hit the back of my head, propelling it forward so that I head butted the queens stomach. Xanthious laughed cynically (the git) as my vision swam, my magic desperately trying to lull me back to sleep so I wouldn't do anymore stupid things. Within seconds I had succumbed and once more blacked out.

I woke with a stinging headache. I was sitting on a chair, my hands bound behind me rather uncomfortably. I was at a table, a candle burning to the side. Opposite sat a masked man, about the same height as me. He looked up as I started moving.

"Evening. Nice to see a bit of movement from you." pause. We stared at each other in another awkward silence.

"Fine. I'll cut to the chase. Who are you?" he asked. I kept silent. I really did not know what to do. Because this was really bad. Like really really bad.

More silence. I just stared passively at him until he felt a little uncomfortable and averted his gaze.

"Ummm...Why were you helping the witch?" he asked again, trying to get a response. Nothing. I gave him squat. He was getting a little annoyed now. Good. Now he knew how I felt.

He slammed his fists down and got up. He gave me a dirty look and stalked out. Great, now I was alone.

I let my magic swell, drawing upon the pools of reserve from my dragon compatriot. I set them to work at burning through the ropes binding me to the uncomfortable chair.

Within a few seconds, I was stretching my muscles. Two men walked back in, the previous guy bringing in the 'bad cop'. They stood and stared as I raised my hands. They paused. I didn't. With a thought, arcs of living lightning crackled from my outstretched palms, searing their bodies with burns as the tendrils coiled themselves round limbs.

They screamed for seconds before my magic burnt through skin, muscle and bone. They fell down dead, heads lolling forward as their neck was cut in two. I rushed out, letting me magic run throughout my body. With a gesture I strangled another man, my wires burning a neat through his neck. I launched lightning bolts at another, impaling him with tremendous powers to the wall. I ducked a punch, forming a crackling glove of energy around my fist as I punched my assailant in the stomach, powering through flesh and muscle. I tore through his chest and pulled back, anger filling my vision as I attacked more bandits. My nostrils filled with burning flesh as my powers seared skin and cauterised wounds. Blood trickled from ruptured arteries in my wake as I made my way back to where the queen was.

Opposition shrank as I killed, probably because they were all dead. Kicking a young man back down the stairs, having impaled him half a dozen spears of light, I let my power subside. I'd finished. The ice castle had quickly transformed into a horror movie set. Blood stained the floor, bodies lay slumped against the walls in the midst of pooling organs and body fluids. Rather gross to be honest.

My own halo of light evaporated. The blood that had adorned it sizzled and left a thoroughly unpleasant smell in the air. Whilst this mess was my own fault, the thought did make it seem any better. As my magic subsided, exhaustion set in. this was clearly the side-effect of magic.

The magic snaked its way back into the core of my body and in response, limbs got heavier, fingers and muscles ached. The whole act taking me completely by surprise. I staggered forward, tired. All I wanted now was a good sleep.

With the full removal of magic actively participating in my motions came the clenching cold. I shivered as the curse within took a firmer hold. Clearly, it was winning, my own regenerative powers losing against whatever fuels a frozen heart. How depressing.

I managed to stagger my way to the small cells that the queen was being held in. With an effort, I managed to straighten myself up, so as not to look too weak and walked in.

Ignoring the queen's gaze, I made my way to untie her, unwilling her to look her in the eye after I'd previously head-butted her and fallen on top after. It took a while, but finally I'd managed to free the queen from whatever magic-impeding rubbish that had tied her up.

I say magic-impeding but for all I know, she could of just not tried to blast her way out. A pretty obvious thing to do, but then, not everyone can be as smart as me.

We walked out in silence, once again awkward, the queen ahead slightly in case there were any more enemies I'd left. She paused though, when she saw what I'd done to her castle. A hand moved to her mouth, probably to mask her surprise, or to stifle a giggle, I really don't know.

She turned to me "What happened?"

I shrugged. "They fell off the stairs." I replied, sidestepping her and making a beeline for the exit. That scene would stay with me for ages.

I turned to her, impatiently gesturing for her to follow. This she did, deciding to nimbly pick her way through the mess of limbs and pools of blood in her way.

"Thanks, I guess" she said with a nervous smile as we walked out, leaving the bloody smell behind us.

I nodded in acknowledgement, not willing to let the pain show through my voice.

"Well, I suppose... Wait, are you all right?" she asked, pausing suddenly at the ice bridge. Probably not the best place to look down.

I turned to face her. I paused. Something built up, a little whine in my ears. From Elsa's expression she heard it too.

Above us, something exploded. I say something, but really I mean the upper part of the castle. It also exploded a lot. Like a really big boom. From inside we could hear howling. I looked up, catching a glimpse of something dark and lithe darting back in. more howling and cries. Utter gibberish but it was spooky as hell. If only I knew how right I was...

From outside, we could just see the top of the stairs. A large, black daemon, with little shape landed in front of us, about twenty meters or so away. It howled, pointing a slender finger (?) at us. The wall beside us exploded violently as a searing bolt of black hue hit it. More raced towards us. Not near, and the ice did hold them up, but a lot. By my guess, the cultists were actually doing cult shit up there. I guess I didn't help my spilling their blood...

I turned round, my exhaustion temporarily forgotten. "Run!" I yelled, pushing the queen towards the bridge.

"You're not going to fi-" she started

"Nope, just keep on running, don't look back, down up or anywhere really." I interrupted, promptly following suit.

More bolts soared past us, blasting great furrows in the lightly snow encrusted ground. Xanthious must of seen our plight, as my magic seeped into a small shield behind me, covering my behind.

There was no fight. There was no way I was ever going to fight those daemons without a couple more people to hide behind. Xanthious, however, did not agree.

"You should turn and fight!" he bellowed.

"Shut up, keep on giving me the P.E.D.'s and stop whining" I screamed back, confusing the f*** out of Elsa. "And keep running" I yelled, to both Elsa and suicidal dragon conscience.

A bolt streaked above us, utterly destroying the remaining five meters of bridge. Elsa paused. I didn't, I kept on running.

"what are you doi- Oh dear. You're not really going to... you actually are..." said Xanthious

"Keep quiet and keep on supplying me with magic" I growled under my voice. With a fluid movement, I picked the queen up, grunting with the effort as I slung her over a shoulder, ignoring whatever indignant comment imparted her lips, still continuing my head on charge to the massive gap in the bridge.

"Don't look down" I warned both myself and Elsa. We reached the gap. I jumped. Not across, but sideways, heroically swinging both myself and passenger over the rail as the ice beneath splintered and cracked. I pushed off from the rail, launching us a couple of meters to the side, sending the daemons aim wildly off track.

Now we only had the couple hundred meters drop to contend with. With a concentrated thought I first created my magical jump pack to me. With another, I summoned a massive lance of light to impact on the ice palace.


	18. Chapter 18

_Drink deep of victory and remember the fallen_

The second piece of magic obliterated the mountain side. And the daemons. And castle. The first piece of magic allowed me to gradually slow our descent. Whilst we still moving down extremely quickly, I was able to nudge ourselves away from particularly nasty outcrops and arrest our fall every so often.

It did not make the landing nice though. We still smacked into the ground very hard. Correction, I smacked into the ground very hard, with the queen safely ensconced in my arms. I'm pretty sure a lot of magic went in to making sure she suffered little body harm. Which was not what I ordered Xanthious to do.

I elegantly pushed the queen off, groaning as I moved any muscle at all. A combination of magic withdrawal and a frozen heart really testing my body's capacity for pain. But I was in one piece. Hopefully.

Elsa still lay in the snow, probably traumatised from my sudden escape route, the ungrateful *****. My faithful bag still remained slung over one shoulder, having survived being pillaged by raiders and a two hundred meter or so drop. A quick check to make sure the equipment was safe before I pulled out the meagre remains of the lunch it had once contained.

Some sandwiches, crisps and a bottle of water. Not particularly appetising, but you'll take what you can get after a while. I bent down to give the queen a little shake, and to check she was still alive.

She was. "Up you pop, your majesty. I'm getting bored of watching you squirm like a little worm" I called to her, in a surprisingly jovial manner. Then again, seeing your boss looking silly is a unique and enjoyable experience.

Elsa got up, making all sorts of grunts and groans, a bit like a farmyard animal. I didn't tell that to her though.

"Uggh! Never again!" she moaned, plonking herself down on a little hump of snow nearby.

I shrugged, giving her a slight smile. "Cheer up. At least I'm still alive." I tossed her a sandwich and some of the crisps. "Eat quick. I want to get to Arendelle ASAP. And by that I mean my room, my bed and sleep for two days straight."

She nodded in response, probably wishing the something similar. She looked down at the food "What is this?" she asked, looking at the bread with a little disdain.

"Food." I replied eloquently. I motioned for her to eat it. "It's a ham and cheese sandwich, with a handful of salt and vinegar crisps. It's not poisonous. And only harmful if you have a lot of the crisps, like loads of them. And you probably do not want to know how they mass produced the ham. Or the cheese. And there was an article about sawdust in the flour... but on the bright side, it's not butter! It's actually, _I can't believe it's not butter_ margarine! Which means less unsaturated fats and stuff. And I'm pretty sure I washed my hands when I made it. And it was a clean knife." I smiled again.

She ate the food without a complaint. First for everything I guess.

The journey back to Arendelle was pretty uneventful. Long, awkward walks through barely used forests in the early hours of morning. A great way to finish this little barrel of fun. Upon arriving, I made my way straight to my bedroom, where I promptly fell asleep for the rest of the day.

Work does that to you.

I woke up in a nice, comfy bed with the duvet wrapped loosely about me. For a second, it was like a normal day. University lectures sparsely spread with plenty of time to lounge about in the library. The entirety of human knowledge a couple of clicks away. Good, healthy food and drink along with nice, tasty unhealthy foods. A typical day.

And then 'real' life hit. I woke up, in a foreign land, alone and ignorant. Relying on a fictional backstory and a combination of blind luck and magic to get through the day. The memories of my previous day hit me, flooding my senses as horrific after-images of the massacre and the dead shook me. For the first time since my arrival, my emotional barriers came down.

The realism struck me then. The loss of family, friends and life coming back whilst I was so low. I broke down. Silently of course, but even still small droplets fell onto the sheets as I opened up, accepting my loss.

It was a firm reminder, that I was still human. No matter how hard I strived, my core being was vulnerable; deep down I missed those that I had known.

My past, whilst not the most disturbing, was not a pleasant place to reminisce about but I found myself wandering the dark corners of my mind as I sought to seek out the smallest pieces of comfort.

I maintained this position for a while. It was still early so I wasn't missing much. From what I'd gathered, my new role didn't require much extraneous activity so I could afford this moment of humanity.

It took a while, but I was able to pull myself together. Being sad has very little aid to give, so my practical side won out, stemming the trickle of water and hardening my soul to better ward from emotional attacks.

With my trauma sorted, I got on with preparations. First, I sorted out the room. For some reason one of the maids kept moving a candle a couple of centimetres, so that had to be replaced. Move the bed slightly further from the wall and angle the desk so it was parallel to the wall and perpendicular to the wardrobe.

Carefully unpack all my stuff, placing my electrical goods on the desk whilst the few clothes I'd stuffed in the bag in the wardrobe, carefully hanging them up. Put on a fresh pair of clothes, this time a light-fitting, dark blue set and pulled my cloak about. Probably not really acceptable indoors, but it completed the duellist's look, at least without the hat.

I picked up the Ipad, idly swiping through the various apps downloaded onto the machine. I carried it with me, heading down a couple of flights of stairs towards the dining room, or wherever they ate their food in the morning. Due to the stupid hour I'd gotten up at, only a few people were even awake. But I was still able to procure freshly made bread and butter to eat.

A little disappointing from my usual fare of cornflakes and milk, with a glass of orange juice waiting patiently at the side but I took what I could.

I sat down, chomping on the bread, flicking through some of my books and rules. And in that moment inspiration took hold. The pictures of some of the models from various tabletop games I'd played. They needed magic to work. And science. But perhaps I could now combine the two fields of thinking and make them work.

It was exciting. A boyish enthusiasm took hold as I made note of volley guns and lasers. Missiles and rockets all guided with a vindictive magical spirit. Weapons of mass destruction holstered at ones side and anti-personal grenades that released a burst of pent-up magic. I could single-handedly revolutionise the military.

That was pretty exciting. It was also incredibly unethical but no different from my other ideas. It was this kind of thinking that could help push my magical research. I left in a much better mood, getting ready to lie down some blue-prints for some wacky ideas.


	19. Chapter 19

_Your honour is your life. Let none dispute it_

Not much happened for about a week. It sounds odd, I know, but even in magical Disney land, there are lulls between storms. Of course, I did have to _work_.

My studies on understanding magic advanced, and in the few spare hours I had, I planned and plotted ways to make money, kill people and just generally have a good time.

To be fair, my magic was pretty handy. A useful ability found was charging up my electronics by willing electricity though the charging socket. Don't ask me how it works because I don't know. I decided against opening up a device and seeing how it worked. In this very rare case, I was more than happy to settle for, _"muh magic"_

I suppose another important development was the frozen heart condition. One of the many advantages of my magical healing ability was to limit the effects of the curse. It caused sporadic pain sometimes, but my own brand of magic was naturally stronger than Elsa's meaning I was healing the damage done at the same rate as it was being done. This was good news. Because I was most definitely screwed if I had to go around searching for an act of true love to give someone. Unless it involved money because then I could just steal into the treasury and throw bags of money at everyone. But I got the feeling that didn't count.

I didn't really see much of everyone else. Kristoff and Anna spent a lot of time doing boring stuff. And Elsa just kept to herself so I had a pretty great time to be honest. My new job as _lord commander_ was an absolute breeze. Basically I was like a captain of the guard but like, more senior and stuff. It translated into me just making sure that everybody did a good job and making sure there weren't any gaping holes in the dungeons. That was pretty easy, so I had plenty of time to pursue more interesting things.

The library was woefully useless. As a big fan of books it was a little depressing to find very little new. Some interesting ideas but really it was like exploring the same old shelf over and over; my kindle and Ipad had more books that I hadn't read yet. Then again I did take some books on the local history, if only to make the effort of looking like I was taking my job of security seriously.

But alas, my week of ease and comfort was not to last. Fate had, once again, a bone to pick with me and manipulated events to make the full use of my time.

It started with a usual day. I'd been making some notes on some little thing I'd found about magic from the library, getting ready to cross reference it with my own work to assess its validity when someone knocked on the door.

I sighed. Usually people just avoided my room. Except the maids. They kind of had to come in and mess everything up. They were paid to do it. Anyway, people had grown accustomed to the concept of someone who actually enjoyed being stuck in their room and after ignoring some protests I'd made it clear that interrupting me was, in general a really bad idea.

My magic was still a secret. I was more than happy to keep it that way after the foiled kidnapping event. This was why I had stressed the whole _knock before you come in or I'll kick you so hard in the head you'll be a vegetable_ idea. Even Anna started knocking after I threw a candle at her, starting a small fire that had spread about half a meter before being put out.

This meant, that anyone who did knock would only have something important to say. Sadly this was rarely the case, because no-one had a good idea of what important was.

I reluctantly stood up, placing my pen, I'd found my pencil case, on the desk. I made my way to the door, bemoaning about how people didn't respect my limited time. I opened it, and on the other side stood Captain Nikolaus of the royal guard.

"Sorry to bother you sir, but there's a problem down at the gates. A young gentleman absolutely insists on a meeting with the Queen. He has no papers and, well, he doesn't seem to be of the highest birth..." Nikolaus said.

I blinked. This was worth disturbing me? "Okay. Throw him out." I told the captain.

"We already did. He's just a little stubborn, sir" Nikolaus replied, giving me a slight apologetic look. "The boy says its very important."

"Where's the queen" I asked, hoping that she wasn't busy. Hopefully I could palm the whole thing onto her to deal with...

"Busy. Another meeting. I did check there first but the guards told me you weren't inside."

Well of course I wasn't. No way was I getting stuck into the latest argument on whatever they talked about anyway. I did not need that stress.

I nodded my acknowledgement of the captain, pondering any ways to successfully get out of this. None came to mind quickly unfortunately.

"Well, I guess I'll meet the boy." I relented. We quickly walked out of the castle to the front gates. For some reason the queen had insisted on them being kept open which just seemed like a massive security risk to me but its not as if I have any say in the matter, apparently. It actually just meant more work for the guards who had to stop every Tom, Dick and Harry who wanted to come and visit the castle and judge whether they actually should enter or if they were terrorists/assassins/door-todoor salemen.

The boy in question was being held in one of the rooms beside the gate. A little small but it was okay I guess. The boy in question looked seventeen. A mop of light brown hair, a similar colour to my own, indicated a distinct lack of nobility that the Captain had mentioned. From the looks of him, he looked like some sort of soldier.

A dishevelled uniform covered in dirt suggested he'd been sleeping rough for a long time. But he looked strong, for his age and he was quite tall. About one hundred and ninety centimetres, I guess. He was taller than me regardless.

As I entered a pair of cerulean blue eyes looked up from the table. "You're not the queen." he stated. How very observant.

"Nope, I'm the next best thing. Probably." I told him. "This rooms a little small and I'd hate to impede the guards' efforts so if you'll accompany me into the castle"

He hesitated. "You're not going to through me out?" he asked. I shook my head. "Can I have my sword?"

I looked over at Nikolaus and nodded who, after giving me a quizzical look went and fetched the boy's broadsword. Nikolaus gave it to me and I handed it back to the boy.

The boy smiled as he put it in his scabbard and stood up. We exited the building, the Captain giving a slightly bemused look to me as we passed. Clearly my reputation as someone to fear had stretched to the guards as well. Naturally I ignored it.

We made our way through the castle in silence. The boy looked pretty impressed by his surroundings which helped shut him up. About halfway there, I stopped a maid who wasn't doing much to requisition some food for us. Some soup, bread, cheese and wine. Lots of wine. I had it ordered to the room next to mine. It was still empty, for some reason no one wanted to be near to my own room which meant I got some quality peace.

When we entered the room, I moved the desk so that we could sit on both sides, sat him down on the side facing the door and sat opposite. We stared at each other for a while, sizing one another up, maintaining the silence for a while. He broke it.

"Where's the queen?" he asked bluntly. Straight to the point. I sighed.

"Not going to happen for a while I'm afraid. You know we can't just let anyone waltz in and demand an audience with the queen you know."

"Why not?"

"Firstly, you could be an assassin or other similarly dangerous professional, like a chartered accountant. If the queen was to die, lots of people would lose their jobs and I'd have to face the wrath of the royal princess, who would then become queen. Both of those things are pretty bad were they to happen."

"So what am I doing here then, if you can't trust me?"

"You're not an assassin. No-one up to no good would be stupid enough to just keep throwing themselves at the front gate. However, I can't ascertain your reasons for an audience until you tell me. So please do enlighten me." I spread out my hands as I finished.

"I can't. Its a secret. Only the queen can know." he said.

I raised an eyebrow. "Seriously? You do realise that if you don't tell me I'll have no choice but to throw you out. You may not realise, but you do pose a security risk" I exclaimed, a little amused by his stubbornness.

He looked down at the table. "I-I don't want to" he whispered.

I reached out and took his hand. "The only person who will know is me. And if I don't think it's dangerous, the queen. I am her most trusted advisor" I lied. But it was comforting. He nodded, seeing the sense in this.

He made to speak, but hesitated again. "Why don't you start with your name and place of birth?" I told him. He nodded.

"My name is Reinhold. I was found in Caeteno, a small village on the coast in Corona,. I was found on my own. No-one knew who had left me or where I was from." he said.

"I ran away from the village when I was eleven and joined the army. For the past six years I've been practising my sword-work. My sword was given to me by my first teacher and the closest thing I had to a father. He died fighting a wyvern on one of his trips and I was given the sword in his memory." Reinhold sniffed. Clearly this was a bit of rough area for him to remember.

"What brought you over here?" I asked. We had no need for mercenaries, Elsa seemed to prefer Arendelle as a trading country rather than a military state.

"well... I heard about the winter freeze that happened and..." he tailed off. I was sort of guessing what his reason was now. I guess that Xanthious, my eternal pain in the rear, had sensed his magic and intervened in some of my thought processes to stop me from throwing him into a cell.

"_I did no such thing" _exclaimed Xanthious, responding to my accusation.

"_I bet you jolly well did" _I told him.

Reinhold took a deep breathe whilst I was arguing with myself. "-and I thought that maybe... I wasn't alone." he finished.

"Magic?" I asked. He nodded. I motioned for him to show me.

He raised an arm and closed his eyes, concentrating. A shower of small iron nails flew towards him from the nearby wardrobe. Not all of them, but quite a few had managed to remove themselves and fly towards him. "I can bend metals to my will" he muttered. The nails became fluid, coalescing into a fluid ball of molten metal. It solidified and thumped onto the table. "I can sense them as well. Like, feel them about me, their position and purity as well" he added.

"_An earth sub-type?"_ I asked.

"I_t would seem so. It looks like some sort of metal affinity. I would guess that a lot of cross-breeding between magical elements to result in such a specific ability. He has the potential to be quite powerful. A lot of potential mana from the various streams."_ Xanthious said

I nodded, both to Reinhold and Xanthious. Reinhold looked nervous. I suppose magic was looked down on in Corona, or that he'd lived in fear of being found out. No wonder he was so nervous.

**For those of you who get, Reinhold is a shout out to blessed arch, who regularly gets me through the week. God bless the turtle...**

**For those of you who don't, just saying this isn't totally my idea. **

**Thanks for reading and have a good day!**


	20. Chapter 20

_Never forget, never forgive_

I smiled encouragingly. "Thanks for that. I think I can safely put you in the queens presence. I think she's got a couple of hours spare tomorrow. You can stay in here for tonight. We'll probably arrange some things later so you'll be fine."

Reinhold nodded along, his face rapidly gaining colour as he realised I wasn't going to lock him up.

I continued talking. "With that out of the way, I do have a proposition for you. As you have recently found out, you're not the only one with magic. For example, the queen. Another example would be the small tribe of trolls living nearby." I reached out with my own hand, laying the palm on the table, facing the ceiling. For a small demonstration like this, my own reserves were more than sufficient. "And of course, there are other magic wielders dotted round the globe" I told him as I summoned a lightning bolt over my hand.

It was actually more of a small storm over my hand, with the crackling bolts of electricity raging about my palm. With a thought, I crafted it into a more solid shape, making a small bulb of pure light hanging in the air, properly illuminating the room.

Reinhold almost fell off his chair. "What the he-" he yelled, toppling backwards, only just managing to catch the table edge as he fell.

I smiled. "As you can see, I have kept this a little secret. Very few know of my own abilities. Which gets me to the question. Do you want to work with me. Or rather us. At the moment, its just Elsa and I."

"Are you offering me a job?" he asked. I nodded. "What would I do?"

I shrugged. "As lord commander, my main duty is really working with magic instead of guard work. I combine the two at the moment, but as soon as I can get a group of magic users I'm separating us from the royal guard.

I've talked with some people and well... there's nowhere for people like you to go until now. The queen seems particularly passionate about not making people live in fear for some reason and as the most senior sorcerer at the moment I'm in command."

Reinhold nodded. "I-I'm honoured, sir. I would gladly serve her majesty, and you, especially if I can use my magic for good. And without fear of reprisal."

"Good. We've got some work to do though and its not going to be easy. As soon as we get going I can guarantee that you'll be treated with fear and suspicion everywhere you go. We're planning a school in the mountains, just for the magically gifted. I plan on turning Arendelle into a seat of learning, like Alexandria. A place where the wielders of the arcane can gather in safety. But its a long shot at the moment. Probably because there's only three of us and one of them is a queen so its not as if she can actively guard herself in the manner that I'm thinking off."

Another nod. I did wonder just how much Reinhold was listening. I got up. "I'll leave you to get acquainted with your room. I've ordered your dinner here and there will be guards outside your room until I can be super sure you won't kill us in our sleep, but other than that, welcome to Arendelle." I gave a little smile and made to walk out

As the thought hit me, I turned round and said "And if I hear any noise I will rip your throat out and feed it to the reindeer. You have been warned." I turned around again and left the room, leaving a speechless Reinhold sitting behind me.

Reinhold met the queen the next day during lunch. It was mostly private, only myself, Anna and Kristoff were there as well. Olaf could of made it in, but I quickly shut the doors when I saw him bounce along the corner. No need to traumatise the kid just yet.

Elsa seemed very pleased to meet another magic user, as if I wasn't important enough. It probably helped that Reinhold's own past was just as unpleasant as hers, if not more so. My own problems seemed petty in comparison, not that I really paid them heed.

On the other hand, Reinhold was pretty nervous. Being stuck in the same room as a queen, a princess and his new boss most likely contributed to his fear of making a fool of himself. But he got along well with them when he got over his fear and Kristoff was perhaps the most helpful in overcoming that barrier. I was no help. Not that I did a bad job, I just didn't do the job in the first place.

When all the bonding, comforting and other boring part were done, I moved forward.

"As Reinhold here shows, Arendelle is being cast as a place for sorcerers and magicians. I reckon we will be getting more visitors with the same abilities over the next month. I propose that we make use of this. If you recall the conversation we had about a week ago, we did discuss the logistics of an academy for a group of magic wielders."

The queen nodded to show she understood. Unfortunately Anna did not. "Wait. What are you talking about?" she asked, interrupting me. I guess I should of shared some secrets with others.

I turned to Anna and Kristoff. "To make use of the possible influx of magical students, I'm thinking of employing them as guards. Not to the queen, or to the country, but for the world. A peacekeeping force that ensures humanity does not descend into anarchy. You may of heard rumours from the countries to the far south, of empires rising and falling. Great armies are on the move. The winds of war begin to blow across the world.

In a couple of centuries man will be the foremost killing machine on the planet, if not already. The use of musket and cannon already speaks volumes about the technological improvements being made. World wide wars will spread and the genocide of millions will be ensured."

"Huh?" Eloquent as usual Anna.

"As wielders of arcane magic and powers we have a duty to those who aren't as powerful to protect them. A group who originates from a single country will be biased with that countries aims. Those who are magical are spread throughout the world. It means that when they're brought together they represent the gathering of all the countries each with their own agenda but bonded by magic. It allows us to work objectively for the world."

Elsa nodded. She turned to me. "Cato is right. We have a duty to the people to handle our power with care. I can not allow others to make the same error I did and lose control. I think it might also be wise to note that the leader of this group should definitely not hide sketches of advanced weaponry in his room."

Everyone looked at me. I grinned guiltily. "My mistake. They are only sketches, its not as if they work..."

Elsa smiled. "How about the one labelled _helblaster volley gun_? I do recall that you wrote functional on the top. When were you going to share this with me?"

"What were you doing in my room?" I asked, attempting to skip that question.

"Looking for you. And don't change the subject" she replied, putting her hands on her hips. Who did she think she was, scolding me like a little child.

"Aww, come on. Its just a little innovation. The ideas literally popped into my head and I really wanted to test its usefulness..."

"Don't you think its a little hypocritical that the commander of this peacekeeping group is secretly building weapons in his room?" she asked

I pouted. "No..." she raised an eyebrow. "Fine, I'll hand all all schematics to you then..." I sighed.

"And there's this." she reached down and picked up a thin black rectangle. With a start I realised it was my Ipad. That's where it had gone! "What is it?"

I winced. This was territory I did not want to get into. So I changed tack. "Come on, Elsa. You're embarrassing Reinhold."

"With respect sir, this is quite amusing to watch" he quipped. I shot him a glare that told him to shut up. I looked back at Elsa.

"It's just a thing. Now carefully hand it back. Its not dangerous, just really undangerous really, to everyone. Like it's got nothing to do with anything. Really."

"So I guess you don't mind if I break it then?" she asked, pulling a hand back to create magic.

I gasped. "Don't do that, you..." I trailed off, not quite intending to finish that sentence.

Elsa raised an eyebrow and smirked. She was enjoying holding power over me. "What was that? I didn't quite hear what you said" she teased.

I sighed. There was no way I could win this one. "I said you're a lovely, wonderful, beautiful person and totally not a female dog. If you give it here, I'll show you what it does."

She smiled and handed it over to me. It felt good to have it back. I put in the password and started looking for something that wasn't too incriminating. I smiled. "And now to activate the bomb" I joked before launching myself off the chair.

A chain of ice blasts smacked into the ground nearby. "Relax!" I shouted, giggling. "It was a joke" I lifted the tablet in the air, offering it to Elsa, who was standing over me, definitely not smiling after my little prank.

She tentatively lifted it up, holding it by the side. I stood up beside her with the rest of the group crowding round us. "what is it?" she asked.

"It's called Lord of the rings." I said, reaching over to the volume buttons, turning the volume on. "It's a film, a series of pictures played one after another really quickly. About twenty four pictures a second I think"

Everyone looked rather impressed. Then again, seeing something like this when you still think the sun goes round the Earth is always going to be impressive. The sounds of Legolas and Gimli talking brought back many happy memories from my childhood. Make way for the nostalgia train my brain thought.


	21. Chapter 21

**I think an apology is due in advance. The next couple of chapters may be a little scruffy. I'm absolutely exhausted and running on pure stubbornness just to get these out. There may be a few mistakes dotted about, more than usual perhaps, so be warned. **

* * *

><p><em>I can give men dreams and men are led by their dreams<em>

After a while, I gently removed the Ipad from Elsa. "It does some other stuff, but none of it is particularly dangerous. The only weapon I have is the rapier." I told her, trying to reassure her that I wasn't a massive danger to the castle.

"What is it? How does it work? Magic?" Kristoff asked. The others all looked at me expectantly. Even Reinhold. He'd managed to settle into the routine of _question Cato at every opportunity and not give him any privacy_ rather well.

"It's science. It what happens when you actually think about stuff and then do stuff instead of argue about pointless stuff." I said. "They were pretty common where I came from, but It is miles more advanced than anything you have now." they did seem to accept this and the conversation quickly turned to more interesting things that what I've been hiding in my room.

The arrival of Reinhold was quickly followed by the subsequent appearances of two other mages. In less than two days we had more than doubled the amount of magic people. Nicole was a small, sixteen year old girl who was able create and gently manipulate fire. This usually involved fireballs. Big ones as well. She had been living in the southern isles when the whole Han's scandal had risen and was forced to flee for her life when the anti-magic mob had arrived. Apparently we weren't that popular among the masses over there; Hans got a lot of support from the masses.

Nicole had been accompanied by a nineteen year old girl named Taldeer. She was blessed with what, I suppose. is telekinesis. By moving the air around, she could levitate, move stuff and just generally be a complete pain in the rear. The two had met in a forest, where she'd saved Nicole from the mob and then fled the country in fear of retribution. She didn't talk much about why she'd been in the forest but was deeply attached to Nicole and suspicious of everyone else.

After a brief interrogation and discussion with my good old dragon friend, I'd been happy to invite them into our little group, giving them each their own rooms. The castle, as big as it was, was filling up fast with staff and foreign ambassadors. Elsa really did want the gates opened and was hiring a lot more staff to compensate for the years of minimal staff working.

That said, I was able to keep the recent addition of mages hidden, primarily due to the location of their rooms. Being on the third floor meant close access to the queen and princess. But also meant not as many people were allowed to just wander up here. Of course, training was pretty difficult, because it meant having a room filled with fire, metal, ice and floating furniture as everyone gave it their all in showing the f*** off.

I had literally gone from the cushiest job conceivable to what was essentially a secondary school teacher. Whilst the magic classes were _interesting_, the basic arithmetic and English classes were a nightmare. Whilst Elsa was willing to help, trying to teach them was irritating when they all had varying degrees of education, but most of it on the lines of none at all.

And the science classes. God they were awful. Trying to balance their own religious beliefs with scientific fact was a pain; I didn't really want to offend anyone, particularly when I had little to say on religion itself, preferring to remain open on the subject. That was not really that helpful when they were bickering about what they'd been brought up with.

One of the many advantages of being friends with royalty is that you're also invited to big parties and stuff. Usually, I wouldn't enjoy going to another country just to celebrate someone's birthday, regardless of how important but after just under a week of teaching made me appreciate the break.

It was also a good break for the students. Getting a taste for how royalty like to spend their time would help when they were forced to interact with them later on.

The invite was really addressed to Anna and Elsa to visit Corona in honour of Eugene's birthday. Yes that's right, the scoundrel from that previous Disney film. The one about the story of Rapunzel. Turns out this is like a true six year old girl's magical realm. I half expect unicorns are going to invade reality at some point, probably followed by a bunch of fairies and/or pixies.

Regardless of my own misgivings, it was Reinhold who everyone actually worried about, returning to a country that he'd literally ran out of in fear. I'd managed to delegate the job of making sure he was all right to Kristoff because he could handle himself much better with all that emotional stuff.

However, I didn't need to fear, Reinhold was actually pretty excited for the holiday. Actually most people were. For Anna and Elsa, this was in reality their first big trip out to another country, so both were nervous about what to expect. For the mages, they were going on a holiday so even the worst news I could give them (maths homework) wasn't enough to dispirit them.

And then there was me. I'd been abroad, nothing special. One of the things about twenty-first century countries was the complete lack of anything novel. So many countries had the chain stores and foods that you really had to look to find native foods.

Then again, this was a different planet where literally anything was possible. So I could be in for some really exciting adventures or just a lousy trip. Combine that with my natural paranoia meant that I was a little sceptical about the whole trip. Not that I let it spread to everyone else after Anna threatened to punch me if I looked even the slightest bit gloomy. So forced smiles it was!

As befits royalty, we boarded one of the larger ships, much more comfortable than the frigates meant to stop pirates. We got small rooms each due to our position as important guests. My room was quickly filled up with all my electronic goods. Not having an internet connection anywhere, meant these were at the same usefulness anywhere in the world and as I didn't want any old person touching them, I'd taken them along.

The boat ride took a while. About three days, just under. It was shorter than my trip from Weseltown to Arendelle, but without as much booze which was a real shame. We didn't get any chance to hold any magic lessons on the ship because I still didn't want to reveal ourselves, but I was able to convince the captain to let us use the hold for normal lessons.

These went a little better; the students were in a much better mood and I wasn't in any position to set them really hard stuff. To be honest, they ended up just watching films on the laptop. We managed to get through Harry Potter, which completely threw them in terms of magical ability, Lord of the rings and started the Matt Smith seasons of Doctor who.

When we reached Corona, we were immediately taken into the castle to meet the royal family. That didn't seem interesting, so I kind of blanked out for most of the introductions and miscellaneous talk. I took the opportunity to check out the room we were in. the castle was much bigger than Arendelle's and a lot more fancy. I got the sense this was all to impress people, marble columns holding up needlessly high ceilings, which were more decorated than needed with gold and other things. The exits were many, most leading further into the castle whilst the single path to the city was blocked by about twenty guards, wearing burnished armour and an assortment of swords, spears and crossbows. Very impressive. Not practical either. The armour would hold them up, particularly against Reinhold. He combined strength with speed, able to wield his broadsword effectively against a multitude of foes.

To be honest, magic users were overpowered. Outside of other mages, I saw little that could give me much of a problem, even without Xanthious' help. We could run circles round opponents all day long, with very little in the way of physical training and poor swordsmanship.

I was rudely interrupted with a sharp dig into my hips by Anna. I looked around, to see everyone staring at me. We were still in the hall, both parties sticking to their side as they introduced one another.

I looked at Anna "What was that for?" I hissed. She rolled her eyes and looked pointedly at Elsa, who was looking nervous.

"Um, yeah, this is Cato Aurelius, of Alderan. He's currently our Lord Commander" she told the Corona delegates. I could see some of the nobles behind the king whisper among themselves.

The king looked at me. "Lord Commander huh? What's that? I haven't heard that title before" he asked. I didn't blame him. Very few ever hear about something someone made up.

"bit of everything really. Head of the royal guards, a little military stuff and currently means I'm in charge of teaching these promising individuals." I said, indicating my students.

"Teaching them what?" the queen standing a little behind him, asked.

"All sorts, to turn them into proper nobles. Some maths, literature, a good deal of science and most importantly of all, the knowledge NOT TO TALK BEHIND PEOPLE'S BACK BECAUSE IT'S RUDE" I said, shouting the last bit to the little gathering of nobles who were whispering behind the royals. They immediately shut up, looking very guilty when the king turned back to look at them. He smiled a little when he started talking, introducing one of the nobles to us.

Anna looked at me excitedly. "Its Monique Gi'bral!" she whispered excitedly. I gave her a blank look. She frowned "He's a famous explorer of the world. He sails the world looking for new lands." she explained.

I smiled. "Has the idiot found out the world is a sphere yet?" I asked as a natural lull in the talk occurred, letting my comment fill the air. Again all heads turned my way. I could see Elsa practically wilt in embarrassment. The teenagers behind me were stifling laughs, but none of that compared to the cold fury lining Monique's face.

"Yes, actually, this _idiot_ has found that out. It's something we've known for a while now, I'm surprised you didn't realise that we are up to date." he said stiffly, walking out into no-man's land.

I stepped forward. "Sorry. It's hard to keep up with how much your average barbarian knows when you haven't even split the atom yet. When you manage that we can talk nicely later. Till then, try rubbing some stones together" I said, raising my hand to cover my mouth, making as if to whisper "It makes fire!" I said loudly.

Some of the nobles lost it there, openly laughing, the king was smirking and Rapunzel was bent double. Our own party was in a similar state, smiling as I mocked the worlds foremost explorer. Elsa didn't share that stance however, I could feel her staring at the back of my head.

Monique took it badly, his face reddening. He turned to the king and queen. My apologies for this but I cannot stand by why this gentleman mocks my profession." with that he twisted back round to face me, pulling a glove of his hand. He threw it down towards me. "I, Monique Gi'bral, challenge you to a duel to defend the honour of brave explorer's across the world."

I stood there stunned. People actually did that. Cool. I smiled and nodded. "I accept."

He gave a grim smile. "Tomorrow, twelve o'clock at the duelling circuit. Be there or else." he said before marching out of the room. The conversation quickly drew up after that. Both parties left each other; the Coronan people to prepare for the duel and the Arendellians to find their rooms.

I entered mine and immediately began rearranging the furniture to suit my own aesthetics. I then began to take out my collection of devices and placed them on the small bedside table I'd been given. The room was about the same size as my one back in Arendelle, a testament to the sheer size of the castle here.

I pulled out the wine I'd smuggled in my satchel and placed it on my desk, to oversee my struggles in putting stuff away correctly and to inspire me to finish the work quickly. I opened it, letting my enhanced, dragon-like sense of smell inhale the light aroma of fruit and alcohol.

There was a brief knock on the door, which then burst open, revealing a rather irritated looking Elsa. She walked in, closed the door and glared at me.

"Come in" I called, which just seemed to make her madder. What did I do this time?

* * *

><p><strong>Thanks for getting through this. All I want to do now is curl up and go to sleep. Serves me right for attempting the hobbit marathon on a school night before a bunch of extremely important tests. Yay for improper revision method!<strong>


	22. Chapter 22

_The road to purity is drenched in the blood of the martyred_

"What the hell do you think you're doing!" she yelled. I gestured at the neatly folded stack of clothes.

"Errm... putting away clothes...?" I stuttered. Really, I had no clue as to why she was mad at me. It's not as if she'd found out that I'd been gambling, that was going to happen later tonight.

She glowered at me. "You just started a fight!" she shouted. "We haven't even been here for a day and you managed to make a fool out of yourself"

"He started it" I exclaimed, protesting my innocence.

"You called him an idiot and then mocked him! He didn't do anything wrong"

"Aww, come on. He's an asshole anyway. It's not as if he's important..."

Elsa burst out again. "He's one of Corona's most famous individuals! And you made him the laughing stock within seconds of meeting him!"

I grinned. "Yeah, that was pretty impressive. Don't know if I can repeat the perfor-" I was cut off as the temperature suddenly dropped.

"It's not funny Cato! You embarrassed us after a day."

"It's not my fault" I blurted out.

She sighed, calming down slightly. It was still cold though. It was not helping me keep back the effects of the frozen heart either.

"Don't play dumb, Cato. We both know you're intelligent." she groaned. "You know as well as I do, that Arendelle is on thin ice"

I started to smile before realising that a pissed off Elsa usually resulted in snow storms and daring, suicidal adventures.

"Half of the local countries smell blood. We're treated with fear by some populaces and as monsters in the next. The only reason we can still trade is through fear; their scared of us, not sympathetic. They're afraid I'll destroy them if they don't comply.

Those that don't fear us are tied by blood, so its not as if they get much of a say in the matter. After my winter, Arendelle is at it's worst politically. This is a chance to show that we're not tyrants.

And then you go make a fool out of yourself, going around mocking celebrities. It looks like I can't control my own people. How can I rule, if my subjects do what they want" she said

I nodded. I understood what she was saying. Not all of it, because I was all for a military state, crushing all who opposed, but Elsa wasn't really into that.

"The duel tomorrow. No magic" she said.

"What! That's not fair, he's a complete tosser!" I moaned.

She looked at me, sitting down on the bed. "You said it yourself, you don't want to show of your magic until the last possible moment. This doesn't count." she said.

I tried to argue, but she held up her hand. "This is a duel for honour and I will not have you spit on his, or yours, by reverting to cheap tactics just to spite him. If you do, I will come in here and break that" she said, pointing towards my laptop. I sighed. Boy was I f***ed.

She got up and made to the door. "You're supposed to be setting a good example to your students." she said

I started complaining "It's not my fault he's a total faggot and can't take a joke"

She sighed. "When will you grow up!" she yelled "There's more at stake than your pride and making silly jokes"

She picked up the wine. "This is going to Monique, as way of apology. You shouldn't even have it here anyway!" she said.

I stood up. "What the hell! I spent ages smuggling that in!" I shouted. Not that it mattered as she'd stormed out seconds earlier. I followed her out, still complaining.

Doors about the hallway opened up as I started shouting, curious heads poking out. I twisted back round and entered my own room, slamming the door shut. And slumping against the wall nearby

About a minute later, a gentle knock on the door could be heard. It opened and I looked up. It was Anna.

"Go away" I grumbled

"What were you two arguing about?" peering down at me. She slipped through the narrow gap and sat down beside me, letting the door slide back.

"She just professed her undying love for me. What do you think?" I spat sarcastically.

"Oh. That explains the shouting." she replied. "Was it about earlier?" she asked

"If you knew, why did you ask?"

"Just trying to get you to open up" she nudged my shoulder "Go on, you can tell me all about it"

"Go away. I don't want to talk about it" I repeated.

"So you're just going to sit here and sulk"

"I'm not sulking. I'm contemplating"

"Looks like sulking to me" Anna replied, smiling a little. "Do you want a hug" she asked, spreading her arms to encompass me.

"Anna, just leave me alone" I yelled, throwing her arms off. She looked a little hurt. "Look, I appreciate your concern, but just leave me be. I'll be fine." I told her. She nodded and got up. She opened her mouth, but quickly closed it.

Alone, I let my pent up anger go. A ball of electricity formed in the middle of the room, the energy flowing in strands, swimming about in the sphere. I poured more and more into it, building the ball up and up casting an eerie glow over the room

"_You shouldn't do that you know. If you lost control, you'd destroy this room and many more. It would be quite a hole in the castle as a result."_

"_Shut up. Leave me alone, Xanthious" _I thought. I did not need him to get involved.

"_If it makes you feel better, this is something all dragons do. Even I made a fool out of myself when I was a hatchling. Dragons are supposed to be the apex predator after all. Much of our arrogance is justifiable, but that doesn't mean it should be flaunted at every opportunity." _he replied.

"_Are you comparing me to a hatchling" _I warned

"_Of course. You are still young, even in human terms. You have much to carry and much to learn. You know better than anyone, people do not like being called stupid. No-one actively thinks they are stupid at first. I can understand your frustration, but you must see things from her own side. If she's soft then she looks weak. _

_And, she's not trained to look for magic like I am. So perhaps, for example, using magic to enhance your abilities rather than to attack would go unnoticed." _he droned.

I sighed. He was right. I could enhance myself with magic and my own healing powers would allow me to take risks...damn it, I hate it when the old dragon is right. I heard a snort of approval.

I made my way to my bed, intending for an early night.

Unfortunately, fate had other plans and as I drifted off to sleep, it had a good laugh behind my back.

I found myself in a dreary cave, dark, dank and disconcerting. I held out a hand and a flickering ball of light floated out, illuminating the place. I wish it hadn't.

It was a graveyard, I decided. The floor was made up completely of clean bones. The skeletons of humans littered the floor. About twenty centimetres thick I think. The sides of the cave were covered in a thin layer of moss and algae but it gleamed in the light. It was not very pleasant, giving the impression of holding back a great amount of water. I shuddered, it wasn't very nice walking over the dead. Rather disrepectful and all.

There was an exit. Unfortunately it had collapsed in itself. As I walked towards it, I could see the cracked bones where the rocks had landed, snapping femurs in half. I turned round and made my way to the back of the cave, my little ball of light bobbing along silently.

Two massive skeletons lay at the back. A circle of human ones surrounded them. I guessed this was the tomb of one of the many fights between humans and dragons. Xanthious was silent, it was more as if he wasn't there...

As I stood in front of the skeletons, they moved. Not the human ones, the dragon ones. Their necks snacked around, putting two bony skulls in my direction. I swore and jumped back, slipping on the corpses about me and landing in a pile of ribs.

The dragon skulls stared at me, their empty sockets peering at me on the ground. At the same time they spoke, not aloud but in my head, a piercing high voice that gave me a headache.

"_Welcome, earthling."_ they spoke. _"Welcome to our tomb. Our places of death. Look around you for you are steeped in his domain. Beware" _they said. I stood up slowly. Their heads moved, their eyeless faces following my every movement.

"_We come with a warning, chosen human. A warning. A dire one. The bones of our dead are still powerful, fear it for it shall bring doom upon you. It has been stolen!" _they reared up, except one of them stumbled. It was missing something, a bone was missing from its leg.

"_We feel him in the shadows. He feeds on us. Our very essence. Fear him for he did what we dared not, little human. Run, whilst you still can!"_ they screamed. I wanted to, but I could not. Boy did I want to though, run like frak and never look back, but that odd dream magic rooted me in place

They relaxed, settling back down _"Lhe law. Conservation of energy. You know it?" _I nodded. _"Magic is an energy. It is what drove us till it was taken. It exists but it is the process of change. We are going...We are gone human. History will forget us. We will not be remembered. We shall pass into legend and into myth. We know this. We knew this._

_Energy can be transformed, not created or destroyed but transformed. Or lost. And it is being lost right now, our spirits drained over thousands of years by the orator of the doomed. We have lost. We lost human. _

_But we shall not go peacefully human. You combine dragon and earthling. Light and dark at once. You can remember us. You can stay. You know this. You can win!" _they told me. Unsure of what to do in this situation i took a leap of faith. I nodded.

"_Energy can be transformed. You need help. Our bones are powerful. Like a torch strike back at the shadows!" _they rose up, both of them synchronised. They lifted themselves into the air, and instead of skeletons, I saw two majestic dragons, one a dark red, the other a shimmering grey launch themselves into the air. The images rose, but the skeletons did not. As the dragon images rose up, the bones fell back down with a clatter.

The voices stopped, no longer ringing in my head. Cautiously I approached the bones. No movement. No life whatsoever.

Energy can be transformed. Our bones are powerful. I need help. They rang in my ears. Maybe, just maybe. I picked up a bone. Nothing happened. I dropped it and picked up another. Nothing. Great.

Then everything shimmered and I no longer felt myself in the cave but in my room. I was awake. Scared shitless, definitely not okay, but safe. Ish. and i think I wet my pants.


	23. Chapter 23

_What fear of death have we who know there is immortality in the great and noble deeds of men_

I didn't really know what to do. I couldn't go back to sleep, not after that dream and it was early morning. I had about eight hours before the duel began. I didn't want to wake anyone up either.

I ended up walking through the streets. Not the most interesting, but there was little I could do. When that got boring, I went to the duelling arena and just sat in one of the rooms for six hours. Doing nothing. Very little thinking, no talking, nothing.

That dream had shaken me. It had been more than creepy watching the degradation of madness of the dragons. And it wasn't as if they'd made me feel better either, what with their warnings and shit. It had been spooky and discomforting. Their bitterness and hatred oozed out of every sentence. They had praised me and looked down upon me, their thoughts bitter, that their memories would last in a human.

I suppose that time spent was relaxing. Releasing pent up tension by doing nothing to aggravate me further. As I waited, the stadium filled up, the crowd noisy and busy. For the most part, I ignored them. I sat in a little changing room on one side of the room, whilst Monique was in the other.

My rapier was beside me and my clothes were my usual fare of light fitting tunics and trousers. I had taken off my cape, leaving only the metal badge I was using to attach it to my shoulder affixed to my shirt. It was a good luck token I suppose. A two headed eagle, one blind, with its wings spread out. An imperial aquila.

I was ready. For the duel. For an attack. Either one really. I didn't need a prep talk or words to boost morale. No desire for a token or the support of the crowd. I was self-sufficient. The only person who could motivate me, was me. I knew the odds were against me, especially with the ban against magic, but i wouldn't give up now.

I still let it flow though. It was needed to boost my prowess to superhuman levels, giving me the ability to beat your average human. And without it, I would die. My frozen heart would take control and kill me. No, I fought blade to blade, but allowed the magic to run.

A horn sounded. Our signal. I stood up and entered the arena. About forty meters of land about us. The dirt beneath my feet was soft, the grass fresh. It would make for a soft landing.

We walked towards one another, weapons drawn. A referee, I guess, stood between us, addressing the crowd. I wasn't listening. Our eyes met, and his lips curled into a smile. Arrogance. Pure and simple, he knew he was going to win. I grinned back.

The referee shouted something, and Monique charged. His wielded a scimitar, which shimmered in the sun. Odd, I thought, but then he was upon me.

Without my magic, I would be dead. Maybe. He was fast, just as fast as me now. His sword cut through the air and he slashed forward, the curved blade glinting. I blocked, angling my blade so as to remove the momentum. He chained a series of flowing attacks, moving from side to side. I was just able to keep up, sliding his blade off again and again.

I blocked a strike, pushing back on one leg, letting my strength show. He stumbled backwards and I guided my blade in. Where his were wide, sweeping attacks, mine were focussed, darting the blade forwards in a stabbing motion.

We traded hits, neither one landing a blow on each other. I didn't know how long we fought but it felt like an age. He slashed at me and I dodged, sidestepping and jabbed at his hand. He withdrew it, but I was too fast and stabbed in the hand. First blood was mine. He roared, his hand covered in blood and presses an attack.

I was forced backwards now, desperately blocking his attacks as his rage was unleashed. With every hit, I could feel my sword shudder.

Clang!

Clang!

Clink...?

And the worst happened. Our swords met, and his drove through mine, shattering it completely. The hilt went flying as it broke, the energy sending it spinning.

He smiled and rushed me. I was pretty sure he'd won but I met his charge, batting the blade away along the flat of the blade with my palm and punching him in the face. He brung his sword round again and in desperation I grabbed it. We wrestled with the blade, the edge cutting into my skin.

With a grunt of fury, and of course Xanthious, I snapped the blade, breaking it in two.

Or at least I thought I did. Instead, I was thrown back by some force slamming into the ground. I think my spine broke at that point. Not that it mattered too much as my magic went right about healing the damage.

The enchantment broken, Monique was wielding... a bone? A long, sharpened bone but...

Oh no. The dream. The warning. Not now surely? Of course now. When better? No time to prepare for an attack. The whole dream was a bit last minute in my opinion.

Monique turned to the crowd. It was silent. After my fall and subsequent barrelling through the earth they thought me dead, I guess.

He lifted the sword. "Behold...the bone of a drakon, a great primordial beast. By the prophet, I have ordained power!" he yelled.

A ball of fire shot into the sky. It twisted before exploding, like a firework. The crowd loved it. The crowd loved him. "I have the power over fire!" he shouted and to demonstrate this he weaved a giant whip of fire into the shape of a dragon.

"The weapons of the drakon belong to man now." he cried out. What the hell was a drakon? I thought.

Monique started launching fireballs into the air to please the crowd. Except it was no longer fire. The colour darkened until it became pitch black.

He fired more blasts, laughing. He started to twist, his image changing form, shimmering with same enchantment his sword had. Uh oh..

The fireballs in the air morphed into a black disc. Not a good sign. The sky darkened and the disc began to bulge. And from the portal came daemons. Black sinewy creatures of shadow launched themselves down at the humans below and soon the air was filled with daemons.

Monique had also fully transformed into some massive hideous creature. He towered over us all and two great pinions bore him aloft. He swooped down towards where the royals sat and attacked. His minions followed suit, picking on the fleeing civilians. Chaos. Of course.

I stood up, fully healed and raced to where the Arendelle visitors sat. I clambered over seats, dodging fleeing humans and ran towards Reinhold.

"What's happening up here?" I yelled. He twisted round and yelped in shock.

"What the hell? We thought you dead?" he asked

I smiled. "Going to take more than that to knock me down."

He grinned and nodded. "Its chaos. We don't know if we should use magic and the queen's up further. And... I think Monique attacked the Sylvarian guests."

I nodded. "Find the queen and the others. Get to the castle and find my laptop." we both ducked as a daemon swept low. In the distance I could see Monique fly up into the portal, someone dangling in it's claws.

"Go into guest and search for the document 'Custodes'" I told him he nodded. "Follow the instructions in there. Taldeer is a good strategist. Listen to her. Nicole is a natural mage. But you're in charge. You have my permission to use your power here. Don't stray from the document, it will help you." I said.

"How about you, sir? Where are you going?"

I turned back and smiled. I lifted my arm and pointed. Right at the portal. "I'll be in there"

Reinhold paled, but said nothing, simply nodding. "Good luck, sir. It's been an honour"

I nodded and walked forwards, letting Xanthious fuel me. A suicide mission to be sure. But boy was it going to be fun.


	24. Chapter 24

_Dark dreams lie upon the heart_

I let my magic fold around me, letting it take hold in my mind. A jump pack manifested onto my back, it's thrusters burning with light. Two golden wings formed about me, attaching to the jump pack. With a mental kick, I surged into the air on wings of light.

My ascent was blinding. A bolt of light against the shadow. Those in my way were burnt by the ferocious energies that surrounded me. I smashed through the portal and broke the barrier between dimensions, foolishly charging into the domain of my foes.

When I came to, I was in a dark corridor, stretching in every direction were numerous paths and cross-roads. it was rather impressive but mostly irritating in that I would end up having to navigate this labyrinth. A complete waste of time when you're on a time limit. Sort off. It's not as if i had much choice in the matter.

As soon as I stood up, I was beset by daemons. Unaccustomed to invaders, they set upon me with a fury, claws and talons snapping and slashing. It was no conquest. With magic fuelled strength I tore through them, blasting apart the shadows with beams of light and bolts of lightning.

As I fought, a pair of lightning formed claws appeared about my fists. They left a crackling blaze of light behind as they tore through flesh and I was able to chain a series of blows against my opponents. The light they trailed was equally devastating. daemons were cut in the razor thin wires of magic left, claws sliced to ribbons as they barged past.

I had to fight every inch of the way. Daemons flocked towards me from every direction, but I hurled lightning at those far away and tore through the closest. I sent a burst of lightning in a ball about me, stunning them, giving me time to kill more.

But it was enough. The living tide of hell-spawn forced me into paths to the side, leading to various ambushes. I was no longer moving due to my own free will but giving ground as they rushed me. Through narrow coridors we fought, tooth and nail, the very air thick with the heavy and overwhelming smell of magic, a lot like fighting behind a series of chain-smokers. I gave ground, walking backwards up a slope. Myoot slipped, the back pedal meeting air. I stumbled, fumbling unbalanced on a ledge.

And then I hit the floor. My magic saved me, cushioning the blow. I found myself wading in a shallow ocean of a dark, greasy fluid. Behind me, something laughed.

"You seem to have wandered far, little hero" it called. I turned around. And there was Monique. Behind him, on an altar of stone amongst the shallow sea lay his captive.

In response of his taught, I flicked him off. He laughed again. "Brave, valiant. The true qualities of a hero. But down here? Only the evil can survive!" he laughed again and then attacked.

If facing Monique had been difficult, then facing this abomination was ten times harder. Fortunately, I was not handicapped. I roared and activated my jump pack, launching myself towards him. My claws scraped through his thick hide and I chained a series of strikes against him, leaving scars of running ichor where I hit.

Thick, viscous fluid poured from my attack, the liquid, running in streams into the water below. In the light that I produced, the water looked just as dark and disgusting as the daemons. But despite my efforts I was unable to successfully wound Monique.

He laughed as I danced about, carving thin pieces of skin with my claws. But his form shifted and wounds healed quickly. He swung his massive arms, more trunks than a weapon, side to side in an attempt to catch me. I nimbly I dodged them, a combination of light-footedness and using my jump pack to send me spiralling away.

He smashed down, his arms tensing as they begun the moment. With barely a thought, my jump pack flared briefly, launching me high into the sky. He laughed again. "Fly, angel, fly. Only the coward will survive!" he roared.

He was right. This was a fools errand. Fighting an unknown enemy in their home ground. Not a smart move. But I still pressed the attack. I spiralled downwards, folding two golden wings about me as I plummeted down. My claws morphed into a single massive warhammer, and with a grunt, I smashed down, letting the warhead smack ruthlessly into his head.

This invoked a response. A cry of anger and pain echoed through the room. He swung his arms about wild abandon, forcing me backwards to avoid his attacks. Unfortunately, I didn't pay attention to my surroundings. A tidal wave of displaced water swept through me, pushing me to the ground. When it cleared, the only thing I could see was a dark hand reach out.

With a grunt, I tried to roll out of the way, failing miserably. He picked me up and threw with great force against the stone altar. A good thirty meters or so away. Nice.

I smacked into the altar with a sickening crunch. Even my magic couldn't completely negate the force and my body ached. I tried to get up, using the altar as a support, but another hit sent me back into the water. It was unbearable. My body was heating up from the massive amounts of magic being used every second, yet even still my body ached. Pain wracked every movement.

I still got up though. Far too stubborn to just lose. Monique smiled, I think, sharing a wide array of mismatch teeth. Ewww...

"Relentless aren't you? But the light has dimmed. None can stay the dark, for it corrupts all that casts a shadow. It is a universal truth" he told me.

He gestured at the altar. On the stone surface lay an unconscious girl, about twelve to thirteen. From the clothes and my own knowledge I guessed she was the princess of Sylvan. "We all hold the dark within us. Even the young. But the death of such innocence and the corruption of a young flower... that is the sweetest victory.

I will bring the dark prophet to this land. Show him my allegiance to his noble cause. He seeks to unite us. He see our own darkness and shows it to us. He lets us embrace it. As he will do to you, little angel."

He turned to the girl, preparing whatever dastardly plan he had been intending to do before I rudely interrupted. Now was the chance to strike. But what could I do? The problem with magic was not having the power to do something, but deciding what to do in itself.

The greater daemon had shrugged off attacks that would turn a human into a red slurry and tear a normal daemon into a pile of flesh. I was tired, no exhausted, not to mention wounded. The only logical thing to do would be to give up.

But was that the human side or the dragon side? The dragon side I guess. Their unwillingness to improvise had led them to extinction. Following a regimental set of rules had meant they were unable to cope with the appearance of humankind. Trial and error was a very human methodology. Maybe. Actually, now I thought about it, making mistakes was practically synonymous to human advancement.

So I didn't do the rational thing. I did what came natural. Or the second thing really, because I really just wanted to run away. I attacked Monique. Thrusting my hand forward, I unleashed a beam of light energy at the daemon. As I'd thought it did little but irritate him. He turned around to retaliate but in a fit of madness, I leapt over him, using a small burst from my jump pack.

I landed on the surface of the altar, standing over the princess. I gestured, sending a volley of lightning spears at his head, leaping his wide swing. As he over extended himself, I gestured again, sending lances of light through his knee cap. He roared as the magic tore through skin and bone. I was winning!

I found myself smacked into the altar seconds later as a meaty fist punched me right In the side. I folded instantly. Even my best efforts hadn't been enough to defeat him. Monique was stumbling though. I had wounded him. Fresh cuts dotted his skin, and others parts formed nasty boils where the heat had evaporated the water beneath the skin.

He stood over me, looking directly at the princes and resumed the ceremony as if I hadn't been there.

I was quickly losing consciousness. The pain in my heart doubled and my body moaned in protest at even the slightest movement. This wasn't how it ended. I was brilliant. The brightest mind for centuries to come. I didn't just die in some forgotten realm.

So Instead of blacking out, I reverted back to old self. Not the warrior, or the mage, but the smart-ass. The kid who had been sent to boarding school at five years old, never to see his family again. The one who spent the first four years of school being bullied. The genius who orchestrated the expulsion of four bullies in one lunchtime. The plotter and the schemer. The boy who had planned for every occasion.

That was who I was. Not a soldier, or a hero. But a planner. And as I sat on the ground, body broken, seeping blood into the ground, as a daemon conducted an ancient ritual to bring about some doom or something, I planned.

And plotted.


	25. Chapter 25

_Do not waste your tears. I was not born to watch the world grow dim. Life is not measured in years but by the deeds of men._

And came up with a plan.

It took me twenty-four seconds.

First, I forced magic through my body, stopping the healing processes, forcing my body to move again. I raised an arm. Not to summon a lance of lightning, or to attack. But to unleash a blinding flash of light that promptly blinded Monique. In that one second the room was lit up, I attacked.

Strings of magic floated behind me and I sent it about the daemons legs, tying them together. I then kicked and punched Monique's kneecap, already broken thanks to my previous efforts. He toppled over. He struggled to get up, tearing at the golden wire about his legs.

He roared, staggering about. But I could not care. In that moment, my rage and hatred boiled over. In that minute, I stood as the very antithesis of my foe. Where he was dark, I was light. Where he stood tall over others, I stood amongst them.

Two golden wings formed about me as I charged my disorientated foe. A fist fuelled by righteous hatred smashed into his jaw. Another fist broke bones in his arm. Monique howled. His wings spread open and we soared up, fighting meters above the ground. My own wings kept place and I dodged a clumsy attack. I circled round keeping up a constant assault.

"Only angels may fly" I said darkly. With one hand on his hair, I rested the other on a wing and tore out the dark pinion. The sound was like the ripping of a great cloth sail, filling the air, and the daemon roared once more in pain. He shuddered in agony.

"We will have your skull yet, angel. We can not be bested! I will return!" he screamed. I leant closer to his ear, placing a hand against his back.

"If you truly do hail from the realm that men once called hell" I whispered darkly in his ear. "When you return there, tell your kindred it was Xanthious who threw you back" with a grunt of effort I crafted a spear of light about my hand and thrust it through his back. Monique gave a howl of pain but quickly silenced as I tore out his heart.

As his body fell, I fell too. The power and the adrenalin leaving me. I fell to my knees and gasped as the pain returned with a fury. It was almost unbearable. Almost.

With the death of the greater daemon, the place about me began to lose its grip on the material plane. I staggered over to the princess and picked her up in both hands. Summoning the last vestiges of my magic, I formed the wings again.

Now to find the exit. The water beneath trembled and I almost fell. The girl stirred in my arms. I gasped for air as I moved, tired beyond imagining. The aura I gave off was weak, barely lighting the path before me.

The princess woke.

"Where am I" she asked groggily

"Safe-ish." I responded.

We trudged through the water, the place echoing with the sounds of splashing. We weren't attacked once but we were lost. It was an endless maze, the walls shifting somehow and distorting vision.

"I'm scared" whispered the princess.

"So am I. But be strong. We will get out of here." I told her.

The path seemed to lead nowhere, but in a bizarre twist of fate, it led everywhere we wanted. Within minutes of following the wall, I found myself looking above the water I had previously fought in. This very place affected perception of depth, changing the world as it saw fit. Very disturbing to be honest. Not natural.

A bright light burned from one end of the corridor. It increased in size and we could see the endless pools of flame and fire on the other side. We knew what that meant. I gave the girl a little push, making her run the other way lest we both got caught in the other dimension.

With a start, she began running. sprinting towards the portal exit. And I realised that the portal was orientated on its side. Vision swam as the geometry shifted and angled itself to a slope, drawing us in towards a fiery death.

But not on my watch. As the slope gradient increased, I pushed myself forward, using my magic to propel myself towards the exit and together we burst threw, gravity immediately asserting itself.

We dropped. Very, very far. Very fast. The portal imploded, taking those daemons still within away. Mind it didn't remove those that had already escaped, so thousands of the winged horrors still roamed the place, attacking citizens and just generally being assholes.

Tired beyond imagining, I used my magic to slow our descent, so as not to completely terrify the princess when she realised she was hurtling towards the ground at terminal velocity in the arms of a very strange person, covered in disgusting blood.

I smacked down in the courtyard, absorbing the impact of the fall. I stumbled again, my reserves of energy spent after so much use.


	26. Chapter 26

_Dib dib dib, dob dob dob_

Someone screamed a name, taking the girl from my grip.

I stood up. The queen of Sylvan stood in front, cradling her daughter. She sobbed as she was reunited and her husband looked just as relieved. The king was speechless, but the look he gave me conveyed his thanks enough. I nodded and smiled weakly. I walked over to the queen and bent down to the princess.

The queen looked at me. "Thank you, thank you for rescuing my baby girl" she said, weeping tears of happiness. Again I nodded and placed my palm against the princesses. With a surge of power, I cleansed the foulness that had gathered about her from her imprisonment.

"She'll be fine. I've purged the evil from her. She'll back to nor- back to normal in no time" I managed. I turned back, weaker than ever. A hand made it to my shoulder but I kept on going, shrugging it off.

I walked up about five flights of stairs to get to the Arendelle party. I really wished that they'd invent the elevator. or those nifty chairs for stairs. They'd gathered, along with representatives from other countries in a massive hall. They'd barred the entrance but about a small army of daemons had followed them.

As I arrived the door broke open unleashing a flood of foul creatures into the room. Guards and soldiers alike were overwhelmed, their disciplined ranks breaking as each was forced into their own individual skirmish. But it was not all bad news. My pupils unleashed a fearsome tirade of magic. A row of musket wielding soldiers fired point blank volleys of lead into their ranks whilst Taldeer stood beside them, guiding each ball with accuracy.

Nicole weaved a firestorm about the daemons, burning them alive as she sent balls of fire hurtling towards her foes. Reinhold was perhaps the most practical, leading some men, a mix of Arendelle, Corona and others, into their ranks, his blade flashing as he cut down beast after beast.

Whilst most nobles had fled to the corners of the room, Elsa stood by the few brave ones, blasting daemons down with pinpoint volleys of ice.

It was heartening to see my students perform so well. But it would not be enough. There were too many daemons and they were a pain to kill. Each was the worth of ten normal men and tore through soldiers like wheat to an enchanted wheat-cutting scythe.

Sighing, I joined the battle, ruthlessly falling on the daemon horde from behind. My own magic was well suited, bathing the room with a golden glow as I charged in.

Lightning crackled about unholy forms, bringing them to their knees. Spears of light pierced skin and impaled other forms to walls where they were easy meat for vindictive soldiers. With a thought I jumped up into the air on wings of gold, leaving combats where I had free reign of the sky. Magical bolts seared through daemon flesh.

The tables had turned. My arrival put a serious dent in the horde and inspired the guards to fight harder. Like an angel of fury I smashed into groups of daemons, laying waste to all about me. None could stay my wroth as I cleaved them in two.

Several minutes later, we were cheering. Daemon flesh melted into the ground, leaving naught but our own dead as testament of the fighting. As people congregated into groups of cheering soldiers, I made my way to my own people.

My breathing was heavy, but I fought through the pain to at least see this to the end. "Is everyone okay?" I asked.

My students nodded. Some scars and wounds but nothing serious. I bent double, coughing vigorously. I dropped something, letting it fall from my hand. I hadn't noticed that it had come off to be honest.

"Are you okay Cato?" someone asked. I nodded.

"I'm fine. I-I'll be in my room." I muttered, moving past people as I walked to my room. I encountered no more daemons, the castle and city was mostly clear. The threat was mostly over the outlying villages and outside the walls.

I stumbled through my door and collapsed to my knees, coughing. I was tired, but that wasn't the problem. My magic reserves were empty. I had nothing. I don't think I could have summoned a spark. But it meant I had nothing to keep back my frozen heart.

It came back with a vengeance. I could feel the Ice climb from my toes. I gradually lost all feeling about my body as it hardened. In the dim reflection from my mirror, I could see my hair change colour, strands of white overtaking the brown that had proceeded it.

This was what I got. Such a fitting end. Killed not by my foes but struck by an ally. Probably served me right for all the times I'd done it to others on-line but still...

It wasn't fair. I had to endure all the pain to get here only for it to be taken away. Even Xanthious was quiet, not that I blame him. He was probably disappointed. All this time to seek a saviour wasted...

I curled up in a ball in the corner of the room sobbing. My own fear overtook me, forcing me to lash out. I could have lived a full life on Earth. Real Earth, not this..._place_.

It hurt so much. I could feel skin die. Organs slowed down contracted. I would have been screaming in pain had my nerves not died minutes ago. I felt numb. Where I could still, was cold. Very cold. It hurt so much. I didn't deserve this...did I?

I slowly closed my eyes, the skin heavy and the reaction sluggish as my brain slowed down. I didn't want to die. Not now. I'd found my place... hadn't I. It hurt so much. I unfolded myself, trying to find comfort in my last moments.

The pain faded and I could feel my skin and clothes solidify into solid ice. I felt like some last words were in order, but none sprung to mind. Nothing that inspired me besides a healthy F*** off. But who was there to hear it. No family for light years. My friends elsewhere. I was alone. As I lived, I would die.

And so I died.


	27. Chapter 27

_Faith. Honour. Vigilance._

I fell to the floor in a heap. I'd frozen near to the ground so it wasn't that much of fall, but the sudden loss of your limbs does disconcert you for a while.

I hadn't moved from the room, but things had changed. My clothes, all of them, were neatly folded near my bag, which bulged out, presumably from all the stuff inside. Probably the few possessions I owned had been stuffed inside. Probably done it incorrectly as well.

A puddle of water had formed about me. I guess the people downstairs would have some issues with damp, but that was probably the least of my worries. I was also soaking wet. I got up, moving sore muscles and got changed. My hair remained wet but there wasn't much I could do about that till the hairdryer got invented. It was late morning from the sun's position, about ten o'clock. which was a gross estimate, but i couldn't be bothered to go in search of a clock and actually check the time.

Some nice person had put all my possessions in the bag, along with my clothes and devices. Except my laptop. I suppose the group were still using it for the super useful information I'd added. The Codex Astartes mark II rip off.

I was still unsure why I was still alive. Surely I'd been killed when I had frozen over. Although it could of acted like some sort of cryogenic chamber...

As I was coming to terms with still living, I noticed something glowing. I reached down in the bag and rooted around for the source of the light. What I pulled out gave me a shock.

It was the dragon bone. Ahem, drakon bone. Monique's own weapon that he'd used to troll the everlasting shit of out of thousands. It was still warm as well. I brought it closer and it glowed brighter. I could feel it gently feeding off my magical potential. which boded well. Obviously, items that leech off your energy are going to be good for you.

A flash of light exploded from the bone, not too dissimilar to the one from the rock back in Cambridge. I flinched and dropped it. But instead of falling it floated for a couple of seconds, mocking me as if to flaunt its anti-gravity potential. It then disappeared, fading slowly.

"_Thank you..."_ hissed a familiar voice as it disappeared, freaking the frak out of me. The light subsided leaving nothing but some partially blinded eyes.

I sighed in relief. More drama was something I did not need in my life. To be honest, I would have been happy with no drama at all.

I realised staring into space was a bit lame and moved to the door. I'd clearly spent some time in here, most of it frozen. It had bad memories. When I came to think about it, I hadn't spent any time in here before my _death_. Wow. That was depressing.

I strolled out of my room only stopping to pick up my phone, old habits die hard. About halfway down the corridor, I bumped into one of the maids because neither of us were really looking where we were going. Her, because she was carrying a load of linen, and me... I didn't really have an excuse besides simple laziness and clumsiness.

"Sorry sir" she squeaked as we bounced of each other. She ably hung onto the linen, managing to not drop it despite being almost bowled over by the recently deceased.

She looked up at me and then dropped the sheets. "Oh my god..." her hand went to her mouth in surprise. "You're...I mean...Umm..." she trailed off, completely lost as what to do.

"Dead?" I said, being extremely helpful as usual.

She nodded. "I mean...the whole castle was... quite distraught about the...umm. And it's been a week and... you hadn't moved..." again she trailed off.

I nodded. I had been frozen for about a week. That was quite a long time. And I'd missed the party. What a _shame_.

"Where is everyone?" I asked. If this was the reaction I was likely to get, better get it over with.

"At the war council downstairs. In the second great hall. The first was is in a sorry state..." she looked down at the sheets. "Err...I've got some work to do..." Looking pointedly at the linen.

I got the message. "Thank you for your time." I said formally. She blushed and bowed before turning around on the spot and walking away quite quickly, her face red with...what? Fear? Embarrassment?

I shrugged and continued my trek. War council? That sounded promising.

As I approached the doors to the council I was stopped by about ten guards wearing the flashy armour I associated with the coronan military. "Only high ranking personal sir" one of them said, stepping in front of me. The others looked at me, as if daring me to start a fight.

I waited for three seconds as the guard looked straight at me. And then he dropped his sword. "F***ing hell! You're that...from Arendelle... the magic guy..." he swore loudly, taking a couple of steps back. The others looked similarly stunned, a couple wisely levelling weapons at me.

I smiled and held out a hand, non-threatening. With a flash of thought a burst of lightning erupted into being, hovering in a flickering ball of pulsing light. Harmless but impressive. But it could quite easily be turned harmful if I wished.

To a man they knelt in front of me. I'd made it clear I could out-fight them and had fought alongside them in battling the daemon hordes. "My Lord. It is an honour to meet you in the flesh." they intoned.

I nodded, gesturing for them to get back up. Being knelt too was a bit odd to be honest. "You're very welcome"

"What happened sir? If you don't mind me asking?" one soldier asked. "We heard that you had disappeared after the fight and that later you had... died of your wounds. It was a dire day to be honest, especially after you rescued the princess and saved lords and ladies from the attack."

"I was just... hibernating I guess. I did die but I was brought back to recuperate... I think. It's complicated. So... what happened here? War council?" I asked, changing the subject from confusing trains of thought.

They looked at each other darkly. "The threat hasn't been dealt with fully. The outlying villages have been attacked by cultists and rebels. The country has been invaded by traitors within." they told me. Depressing.

One of them moved to the door and started to open it, just a tad. I slipped through, thanking the men and complementing their vigilance. The door slammed shut behind, rather loudly and everyone looked up.

The room was big. Bigger than the main hall at Arendelle but smaller than the first one. A large table dominated the room, and a crowd of people gathered about it, I guess arguing about stuff if it was anything like the meetings Elsa was forced to go through. Politics, what a bunch of rubbish.

As I stepped forward, everyone grew silent. I walked towards them and raised a hand. "Hi. Sorry I'm late, I may of overslept. Did I miss anything?" I said, grinning the most irritating grin I could possibly pull off.

Silence. Eyes widened in shock as I spoke. At least some form of recognition.

As part dragon, apparently, my reflexes were outstanding. It was almost as if I had trained and had actual skill. But even that didn't stop me from dodging the vicious slap heading my way.

"Ow!" I yelped, thoroughly un-expecting such a reaction. I preferred the whole fall down in amazement and awe one. Mainly because it fed my ego but also resulted in far less slappings or other brutalities that would enrage most human-rights activists.

I raised a hand to my cheek, looking for my assailant. Not that there was any doubt. Elsa strode forward, parting the crowd who left a wide space in case she decided to go for my throat.

"Why didn't you tell us" she shouted. I fumbled for an excuse but my brain wasn't up to speed just yet and the best it came up with was a very comprehensive "Huh?"

Then to my complete surprise she fell into my arms, sobbing uncontrollably. "We thought you were dead..." she cried quietly.

Unsure of what to do, particularly with the crowd about, I sort of awkwardly put my arms around her, patting her back lightly. "Umm... Well at least you were wrong about something..." I chuckled nervously, having no idea what the queen would do consider our relationship was rocky at best and a catastrophe at worst.

She eventually realised she was making a scene and stepped back to let another tide of relived colleagues to embrace me. That wasn't that good either, a bunch if icky people all clamouring for my attention.

I was relieved when whomever was in charge called for a break. Clearly my arrival had stirred some emotions and in order for something sensible to be done they had to be calmed. I wish

They couldn't pull a sensible decision if they're lives depended on it. Which, as it happened, it did.


	28. Chapter 28

_For every battle honour won, a thousand heroes die alone, unsung and unremebered_

Of course when I say break, I mean everyone else got a break. For me, it was back into the line of fire. I spent the time answering, dodging and avoiding a series of questions from my colleagues, all clamouring to seek answers. I told them of my exploits in Monique's lair and the fight with the guy himself.

Although I needn't of bothered. Apparently the princess had seen the whole thing, I don't know how but I'm guessing _magic_, and told them what happened. Fortunately I didn't lie too much so our stories probably corroborated.

It wasn't completely one sided, I did get the chance to ask my own questions although I wish I hadn't. Hearing the fall of villages to cultists and other wackos was seriously depressing. But It was kind of helpful in giving me time to asses just how f***ed we were. If i had my way, we'd all been firmly tucked up on our ship, heading home so we could dig some shelters and wait out the war.

But you can guess who they decided to send out to quell the rebellions and invaders. Go on, guess.

It wasn't just me going, but that I was going at all was irritating. We'd already overstayed our welcome, I'd missed the party, the only reason for going, and my gut feeling had been right all along; this was not going to end well.

As the council disbanded, Kristoff caught my arm. "Talk to Elsa. We're worried for her. She was blaming herself for your...condition" he said tactfully.

Hmm, I wonder why she's blaming herself, I thought. Maybe it's because it was her fault. But good sense blocked that particular from coming out and I nodded in assent. More work to do. And it didn't even involve killing anyone! That was like, my first point on my personal statement!

I followed the queen to her room, pausing outside the door. I thought about what I was going to say and steeled myself for the oncoming storm of defensivenss. And knocked on the door.

"Come in" she called. Didn't even ask who it was. I could be an assassin or something equally ridiculous.

I pulled back the door and entered, making sure it closed behind me.

"Hey" I said softly. Now was not the time for yelling and stuff. Now was the time to be supportive and caring...hopefully.

"Can I help you?" she asked, immediately turning away from me.

"I was just coming in to make sure you're fine. You know, not going to freeze the country again..."

She sighed. "I'm fine. Is there anything else?" she asked testily.

"Are you sure? I'm always around and so is everyone else." I replied. "Emphasis on everyone else" I added.

"I said I'm fine. What do you want?" she told me, a little calmer

"Why do you assume I want anything?" I asked, a little irritated that my goodwill mission had been treated with scepticism. Not that it was unfounded, just frustrating. "This could be just me looking out for my...friends"

She turned round, smirking. "You've only visited my room twice since we met. First to complain about the cleanliness of the water we use and the second because you wanted to complain to me about not acting on your complaint. The point is you're not the most selfless person in this castle."

I shrugged. "Kristoff and Anna think something is wrong. And it is disturbing that you managed to gleam all that off me since my stay. And I also complaining about your library, I didn't, and still don't, like the way it's organised. You should have it sectioned out by genre instead of placing everything Alphabetically. Thats just silly.

"I should have known. That those two would be looking out for me. And that you'd find something petty to complain about."

"So... is anything wrong? I am a good listener... okay I'm not but I know what it is like to keep something secret..."

She nodded and sat down. I moved to sit beside her, because I don't like standing up for too long. And because it was less awkward. Still awkward mind.

"It's this job. Nothing is going how I intended. Since the start I've been making mistakes. The whole winter incident and Hans almost led to Anna's death. I was wrong about Monique, very wrong about that and in the invasion I was useless. I was so scared Cato. But no-one else was. Reinhold, Nicole and Taldeer were fearless in that fight. But I didn't help. They took charge when the worst happened.

And afterwards, when I saw you in your room. There was only one person who could of done that. I thought I had control. But... I don't do I?" she said, slowly breaking down beside me. "I'm not suited to be a queen. Anna would be a better one. The people love her, they're not terrified she'll kill them in a bout of madness. They don't look at her with fear."

Well, this was expected. Seriously, it was a wonder she hadn't broken down with all her fear. That was her enemy in the same way fate was mine and my own friends. I COuld actually put a list of all the things that were my enemy.

Of course, it's not as if I was actually trained in dealing with emotionally distressed people. Or to be honest people in general, regardless of emotional state. Especially considering I usually put them in that state...

Elsa continued talking even as my brain stopped listening. "I'm useless, I would be dead a thousand times if it wasn't for you or Anna or even Kristoff. I don't even talk much to Kristoff and I owe him my life, and Anna's. He was there for her when I was not." she sobbed. It was now very awkward for me; I didn't know what to say, do or even think.

"Umm..." I trailed off, trying to think of something that wouldn't screw me over. Naturally my brain decided to take a much needed vacation.

"I just get in the way. Hans almost killed me. I managed to injure you when we were attacked by bandits. And I suppose I killed you as well."

"Umm..." I said aloud, failing miserably in saying something meaningful.

"I'm useless. I can't control my sorcery, even those younger than me, less privileged manage to control their power better than their _Queen_" she cried. "I'm nowhere near you in ability either. What do I add? Nothing" she said bitterly. "Mother and father saw it too. It's why they ran away, to escape me." she added.

"Umm..." I replied. Super useful as always.

"I could of killed Anna. No wonder they locked me away. They should of just killed me, it's not as if the world would miss me..." she said, head in hands as she spoke, tears trickling down her face as the flood gate opened.

And with that extremely morbid line, I leapt into action. "Well at least you've got your health!" I said as chirpy as possible after that depressing rant.

She barely looked up, but I could tell she was shocked at the complete irrelevance of the sentence.

"But seriously now Elsa, it's not all shit." I said, ignoring her. I was starting to get on a roll now. "You've done a good job of not ruining the economy and Arendelle does have friends. And it takes a certain someone to not strangle your politicians. Like really, I couldn't have done that. And magic wise, I can't make life, like Olaf or that creepy giant thing in the castle. And the ice castle itself was a work of art. None of us can do that. We can burn things, destroy things, attract things and make the other things float, but we can't create like you can. You make things for us to destroy . That makes you unique and also incredibly useful in supply and demand problems.

You've had a rough childhood. It's something that I can relate to. From what I gather, yours loved you. They made mistakes, as you have but they did their best by you.

And you're still young. Plenty of time to learn and put right the mistakes of the past." I told her, patting her gently on the back.

"But I almost killed you. You fought for the lives of everyone in this city wounded because I couldn't control my powers." she whispered.

"So? I'm still alive and kicking. We won, its not as if it was drastically important in the fight itself."

"But what if you lost? If you died then, the city would of fallen. I endangered the lives of thousands-"

I cut her off, before she realised just how bad that particular scenario would be. "But I didn't. It's in the past now, with your mistakes." I wiggled a finger in front "Don't go trying to change the past, thinking about the _woulds_ and _coulds_. It will drive you mad. Look to the future and shape your own path." I told her. Sound advice at last... I hope.

I didn't give her a chance to interject and moan. "You've done good as queen. Not perfect, but it is a good job. You tried your best and that's all we can ask for isn't it?"

she nodded hesitantly.

"And you know your friends would all miss you. Think how Anna would be. She'd be devastated. Your household staff, the older ones. They would be upset too. They brought you up after all. And Kristoff cares for everyone, he's always looking out for you. And you've made a good impression on the teenagers as well, they respect and care for you. They did fight for you after all, each one willing to lay down their life to protect your legacy. So stop all this silly being sad talk and get a bottle of wine. Honestly, it'll do wonders."

She nodded again, slightly more sure of herself, smiling at my alcohol problem. "Thank you. I'll bear that in mind. And how about you?"

"What do you mean?"

"How would you be if I died?"

"Errr..Out of a job? Running in fear from Anna?"

She smiled at me. "Seriously now. We are friends aren't we?"

"Sure, it's just I don't know how I'd be. It's not in me to weep over the fallen"

"So what would you do?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. Friendship is just as new to me as it is to you. I suppose I would avenge your death and keep living. Satisfied?"

"Hmm...I suppose so. But, thank you for lending an ear to my problems. You are right, it is difficult to carry the burden alone."

"Of course I'm right, being right is what I'm all about" I told her truthfully getting up, my good deed for the year done. I made for the exit.

"Thank you again Cato. Any time I can help..." she said as I left. I nodded in response and left the room.

I gathered a few supplies I needed and made my way to my laptop. I typed a few paragraphs and plotted. I needed a few plans just in case the worst was to happen and I put them down to paper.

I talked with Xanthious for a while and we made our preparations, combining magic and guile to make sure none could see our plan. It was risky and bold and possibly not even needed but it would work. Maybe.


	29. Chapter 29

_Hope is the first step on the road to disapointment_

I rode out of the city at the head of twenty soldiers, heading to a village two days ride away. With the uprisings centred in populated areas, the country had been left defenceless. Almost all of Corona's armed forces were at the borders, guarding the south from barbarian raiders and other ilk. As a result, only one regiment had been able to do anything about the rebels and they needed help. Apparently.

Corona was pretty similar to Arendelle in terms of land. Forests and streams intersecting one another, with petite villages and taverns dotted about. Both were nice places to live I guess, if you like that sort of thing. I, for one don't, but the solitary life does appeal to many. What struck me as particularly odd was the reaction from the common folk. They seemed pleased to see us and didn't immediately break out the pitchforks and torches. I'd always thought they'd be distrusting off outsiders but they were welcoming instead. How wrong were they.

The journey was boring. No-one attacked us and no matter how I tried I couldn't get any of my companions talking more than a few polite lines nor get them into some sort of card game. I guess my heroics clammed them up. Or my reputation as a dictator had proceeded me. Either way, I was pretty much on my own. It wasn't awful, after all I wasn't constantly worrying about my life and I did have my phone with me, so I could listen to some calming music on the way but it could have been better. Much better. And much worse to be honest.

When we arrived at the camp the regiment had made, things weren't looking good. In fact, I would rather enjoy making the trip back on my _own_, rather than get involved in the shenanigans here. For some reason, probably incompetence, they still thought Napoleonic era tactics were a good idea.

They're not. Especially for me, because standing in a line facing another line and firing until you die doesn't sound fun at all. As you can imagine, you take casualties when you do that. Mind, its not as if the rebels had guns of their own, but they kept on charging with an assortment of knives and blades until they got into combat which was even dumber, but this world had clearly proven itself as a magnet for incrediably stupid ideas and people.

Morale was pretty low as a result. The loss of a few hundred, about a tenth of the regiment, had hit them hard, particularly when their foe was nothing more than a mad, knife-wielding lunatic. I wish I could say that my arrival improved the mood, but that would be lying too much even for me. After all, twenty one more people is not much of an improvement.

It was going on night when we arrived, exhausted from our trip. We were given places to sleep and my companions made their way to tents and fires, mingling with the common soldiers. For some reason, neither side fought at night either, preferring to post guards in case one party got bored being stupid. Then they pulled the troops back and let each side sleep. It sounded wonderfully civil.

I made my way to the command tent where the officers bickered on how best to kill their men the next day. Pretty usual apparently. They _welcomed_ me and then ignored me back to arguing _tactics_ and whatnot.

After finding out how things worked, I was pretty annoyed at the idiocy. I could understand trench warfare but this tactic was woefully outdated. Kind of, I mean everyone else did the same thing at the time. So, I pulled rank over them, assuming command due to my made-up title that no one had realised was made-up.

"We attack in an hour. Get the soldiers ready now because they'll be wallowing in rebel blood soon enough." I told them.

"But sir" one of them complained "That's not how we do things. It's not honourable" he moaned. The others seemed to agree.

"Shut it and do as I say. This charade has gone for long enough. I'm going to show you losers what tactics look like."

"But-but, we can't see in the night. The advantage is with the enemy." Another fool whined.

"Don't worry about the light. When the time comes, each heretic will be sitting in front of you just waiting to be shot" I told him. I sent the juniors scurrying and planned the assault with the remaining officers.

It was probably a good plan, relying on stealth and surprise more than anything. Naturally I was involved, never one to let others do what I could not do myself. Unless I could think up a really good reason as to why I should let the cannon fodder go in first. In this case, I couldn't, so I was stuck leading a reckless chagre into the middle of the enemy, using a plan that I'd lterally just come up with.

I started the attack by lighting up the sky. A bright pulse of glowing magic flew into the sky and turned night to day in seconds. At that moment, the entire regiment ran full pelt into the enemies positions.

Their guards were stunned at this development of a new sun and were blinking in surprise. Not our boys. A quick discharge of muskets killed the sentries and within minutes we were storming the village centre where they had been camping out for about a week.

As they slowly got up, hundreds of vengeful soldiers slashed with affixed bayonets storming their positions. It was a slaughter. I fought at the front, relying on a sword I'd picked up from the armoury and magical protection. Those about me also benefited from the glowing shield of magic I created, simultaneously boosting morale and skill as a result of magic. As our opponents woke up, resistance grew, but intricate fire zones caught charging fanatics in lethal crossfires, whilst I led charge after charge into brutal melee, relying on brute force and righteous hatred to carry the day. And about fifty others guys in front to soak up any loony that made it past the muskets.

Definitely not an honourable fight but it wasn't as if I cared. Within hours the last rebels were being rounded up to face execution squads. We had taken light casualties, most of them were injuries rather than outright deaths so I took care of that, doing my best not to let them die and slowly healing them. It took a lot of energy to do so, but it was worth it.

A combination of willingness to fight on the front lines, caring for the soldiers under my command and being credited with the victory meant I was held in high esteem by the infantry. My reputation took another big leap as they cheered. The officers were less pleased, primarily because I'd stolen the spotlight but they were happy enough to have claimed victory and toast it and all that stuff nobility likes to do.

I led a series of raids against rebels with that army. We fought battle after battle, winning victory after victory in about a week of fighting. Using speed I struck isolated armies, hitting them hard with the full force before melting into the shadows. I won set piece battles against hordes of fanatics, driving them into crossfires and leading them into ambushes. All the time, I was forced to innovate new stratagems, relying on my limited understanding of modern warfare and applying it successfully against a more numerous but poor quality foe.

But as I fought, I saw what had caused the rebellion. In some armies, daemons stood beside commanders, whispering lies and half-truths as they directed people to their deaths. Truly had the dark come, for blood spilt into streets and houses lay abandoned. We contributed to the taint as well. Every death made a martyr. And every time we killed, we gave a little more to the dark ambition within.

From the prisoner's taken I learned the truth. It wasn't just black and white as Xanthious had said. They wanted the same things, for humanity to be united, just going about it in a different way. The rebels had been persuaded after the portal had opened but not by promises of riches or personal gain but to change the world for the better. All of them were unhappy with something. Taxes, jobs, food, all of them had lacked something that they didn't now. They honestly believed they were doing better.

It's hard to fight an enemy whose faith in their cause is stronger than yours. Every defeat made them more determined to kill us. We felt every loss, but they kept on coming, losing thousands of ordinary people. If we won, if we eradicated the enemy, there would be precious few civilians remaining.

After a while the attacks dropped off. We weren't facing armies anymore but small bands of fanatics who harassed our every movement. The captains of the divisions thought we were winning. But I disagreed. They had pulled back their forces for something else. I maintained the constant movement, sending waves of scouts to check the countryside about us for any signs of the enemy. There wasn't any. Which was really frustrating.

The next day however we learnt where they had gone. They'd slipped past us and marched on the capital a couple of days back. A raven from a nearby village had told us of the massive army pillaging their way to the city. This was very bad news. We were cut off from our supply lines but more importantly, out of position.

It also left the dilemma of what to do next. Continue purging small bands of traitors and follow orders? Or turn round and march to the cities defence. We received no word from the capitol so we were left to make the decision ourselves. Autonomy.

In the end there wasn't much of a choice. The regiment felt that not only their king was under attack but family too. We had dealt with the majority of the threat here and so, without further ado we turned round and marched to the city, not knowing whether it had fallen or still stood.

We were forced to ration what food we could. I decided against pillaging the lands for supplies in order to keep the locals on our side, although they had little themselves. It was a forced march long through the day stopping to rest for an hour to eat every day and sleeping little during the day. This wasn't what I needed. The soldiers under my command were tired and scared.

The recent battles against dark powers had left their morale shakened despite their victories. When we arrived we wouldn't be in good shape to fight. As we neared the city, only a couple of days march, tales grew of daemons and foul beasts bestriding the earth, fighting with their fellow man. Stories of atrocities and brutal killings spread amongst the infantry as we passed empty houses and deserted streets.

On the night before our arrival at the gates I commanded the army to stop and rest. Leaving command to the proper officers I made my own way to the city.

The rebel army had deployed outside the city walls at one point. Now, some of the white stone had crumbled and the traitors had poured into the city. The sky was darker than usual and bat-winged shapes soared above the city. It looked dire, with the interior bright with flames as houses burned and the cries of the dying split the air.

I had to ensure the survival of the city till morning so that the regiment I had fought with could fall upon their behind with the full fury the foe deserved. But what could I do, powerful as I was, against so many soldiers. I couldn't be everywhere at once. Any attempt at holding back the tide could lead to encirclement for the city was complex in nature.

But I am no fool to wander in unprepared.


	30. Chapter 30

_Know no fear_

I crept to the outskirts of the largely deserted camp, making my way past the few bored sentries dotted about. I used my innate stealth to move silently past them. I crept up behind one lone sentry and placed a hand over his mouth. We wrestled silently for a while, until I placed my hand at his back and willed a magical shard through his stomach. He slumped over dead, with little noise.

I quickly hid the body and covered myself in his own clothes, draping the dark robe over my own and pulling the hood tight. And then I waited for the switch over. Another guard walked over, relieving me of my post and I made my way into the camp.

As soon as I was able I ran to the breach in the wall, clambering over the rubble in the pitch black of night, completely hidden. I could see the rebel army ahead, holding aloft torches and other assorted blades.

The ground had not been lost easy. A carpet of limbs, some human, others not, marked their warpath easily. They hadn't advanced far, the city guard forcing them to advance slowly, making them pay for each step. Each street was clogged with fighting as rebels charged heedlessly into enemy guns.

The city had once gleamed with riches. Now it lay ruined, houses afire and dead littering the ground. Not really pleasant. I joined the back of one rebel group, so as to avoid fighting my own allies.

As the night wore on and daylight grew it looked grim for the defenders. The rebel army had advanced deep into the city and the defenders were missing great chunks of their army. They'd been forced back to outside of the castle, its gates already closed, gathering for a last stand as the rebels burned down homes and shops.

I didn't see them, but I knew in that mix were my students, giving it their all against the cultists. But it wasn't enough. As the group I was with joined the fight, I slipped into the shadows and headed through abandoned streets and houses.

At the fights apex, daemons arrived. The leader of this pack was tall and thin, surrounded by the most thuggish of his daemons. They all looked positively evil. Minutes after this, the battle ended, not much of a last stand. The survivors were forced to the ground in surrender and my own students forced to the front, forced to kneel before the general that had defeated them. I didn't quite hear what he said but I guess it wasn't nice. He spoke mostly to Elsa, probably because she was highest in rank, taunting her failure once more.

That probably did a number to her self-esteem. I couldn't see Anna or Rapunzel or any other of the high ranking ladies I'd met and been forced to talk to, but Kristoff and Eugene were somewhere in the defending army. Probably. Maybe.

It looked positively awful for the defenders; army in tatters, city in flames and having to listen to another daemon who like the sound of his own voice.

Without warning, Nicole leapt up and attacked the greater daemon, valiantly giving time for the defenders to react. And that they did. Battle erupted brutally once more as defenders piled into combats lashing out with plate-clad fists and swords.

The sorcerers attacked the daemons, ice and fire pinning some whilst metal and stone pierced heads and arms. It was an impressive display of heroism, pushing the rebel army back and forcing the daemons onto the defensive.

But numbers began to show. Every assault the defenders attempted was pushed back with casualties after a while as the rebels swarmed them. When the daemon warlord got his senses back together, he brutally punished my students for their impetuous attack.

Reinhold went down first, failing to dodge three consecutive blows from the warlords mace. He yelled in pain as he went down amidst the ruins of a shop. Taldeer followed soon after, swamped by minor daemons that she desperately fought off. She collapsed after being surrounded, the daemons about her falling too as she took them down with the last reserves of energy, a leg broken from the assault.

Nicole and Elsa redoubled their efforts but against the full fury of the dark not even the combination of fire and ice could stop it. Both were tiring and it showed. Their magic flickered as it drained them. Nicole fell over exhausted first and Elsa stepped in over her to protect her but it lasted minutes. By this time the defenders were utterly spent.

Elsa fell at last, swarmed by hundreds of rebels and struck by the warlords mace in the chest. She hit the wall hard and didn't get up.

The warlord laughed. "How pitiful! The last breaths of this city die now!" he cried to the cheers of his followers. He couldn't resist boasting though. "Skarbrand, greatest strategist of the dark prophet finds you wanting" he cried out to more cheers. He raised his mace over the prone queen and paused.

"Wait. Where is the fifth? The disciple of light?" he asked, or more like yelled.

Elsa tried to sit up. "Gone. Very far." she muttered. "He'll be back just to kill you though" she spat defiantly.

"No. He is here. I can smell him. His fear is overwhelming my senses. He cannot hide!" he yelled.

Skarbrand picked the queen up "Where is he!" he screamed again. She shook her head and in his anger threw her against the wall, probably breaking her back. Ouch, been there, done that.

The daemon warlord stalked over to where Nicole lay and stamped on an outstretched hand. "Where is he?" he yelled again. The rebel army had grown quiet. They no doubt knew what their master was like when he was in a bad mood.

Skarbrand made to crush Nicole's leg but stopped. He walked over to the queen, his great legs making the distance rather easy. He picked up a small crystal from her corpse. "Is that you Xanthious? What are you doing hiding behind this weakling" he asked curiously.

I knew the stone. Xanthious had noticed it back in Corona for its magical potential. As I had wandered back to my room, bemoaning my recent fortune I had happened on the palace's treasury. Not coins and jems, but relics and precious items. Stealing in, my attention had been drawn to the stone and as a plan formed in my head upon learning of its potential, I had stolen it. I'd given it to Elsa as a promise to return and not get killed. I hadn't told her that Xanthious and I had woven a magical spell about it and placed Xanthious' spirit within it.

From the crystal, Xanthious could silently manipulate her own thoughts to do as I wanted. It also meant she attracted daemons like nobody's business and meant she was effectively holding a flare to her position when it came to the soldiers of hell.

And because of that, I had quite possibly killed her. Whoops. But it meant Skarbrand was focussed on the crystal. The scent of magic that Xanthious possessed irresistible to the daemon. He had won, crushed the defenders and seized the spirit stone of a long dead dragon.

Or so he thought. Part of the problem of being really smart like myself is the paranoia. And I had that in spades. But sometimes it was helpful, for example when planning for an attack on a city that you're leaving, to go fight their battle a few days ride away.

Skarbrand held up the crystal "Where is your partner? Hiding? Fleeing? Surely this pathetic bweakling can't be your spirit-mate?" he asked Xanthious. The crystal flashed in anger. The old dragon doesn't like being called a coward. "Where is he?" Skarbrand hissed.

"Right behind you" I called out happily, leaping of a roof, throwing my stolen clothes to the floor, letting my uniform show. I raised a horn to my lips and blew it twice. Two loud signals echoed through the city.

And from outside it was repeated. The relief force made its way into the city, running down cultists in its wake. But it also let slip another weapon.

Using Xanthious, I had influenced the queen to have some of my own designs made. Whilst she'd made it clear I wasn't to have them made, I'd slipped past that particular rule and used Xanthious to make her do it herself, unknown to her. She'd also hired the crew members needed for them and hidden them from sight. Without ever realising what she was doing.

Just as planned.

With the relief force moving through the city and my own weapons of war ready to fight I was in a pretty good mood. Nothing better than starting the day with the complete culmination of an extremely complicated plan. Which hadn't even finished yet. But I was content to savour the impending victory. Arrogant? Yes. But completely founded.

As Skarbrand turned around, I leapt forwards, calling my magic to me. Before the monster could react, I attacked his knees and shins, destroying the muscle that held him up. He roared and swiped at me. Whilst it missed me, it almost hit Nicole, but I was able to create a shimmering dome about her to protect her. I threw a beam of light up in the air and continued to fight. Skarbrand was much slower now and it showed as I danced about him, drawing blood with every cut.

And then the lesser daemons joined in. I went to the defensive, forced to dodge and duck claws and talons as well as the occasional mace. They kept on coming though, no matter whether I burnt them or ran them through. A lucky claw sent me off balance and into the path of Skarbrand's mace, I was flung into the wall. Hard. They didn't give me a chance to rest and attacked. Even as I blasted the last one off, the mace hit me again drawing blood and sending me flying.

Skarbrand refused to relent, constantly slamming his mace into my body. Bones broke from the continuous beating and blood began to pool from various lacerations. Skarbrand stood over my prone body, preparing to finish the job when the world exploded. I grinned. depsite the pain, depsite the wounds. We'd fought for three minutes. Enough time to load the rockets...

The rebel army had been watching the fight, some moving to attack the relief forces but the majority stood where they were. They were destroyed by a barrage of rockets that exploded about them releasing shards of metal and stone. My artillery released another barrage, and the rebels ran, terrified by this attack from unseen foes. Really though, they had been fired from distance and aimed by using my magic markers.

As Skarbrand, the supposed grand strategist, stood watching his army disappear in bloody chunks I drew my magic back and attacked him. This time without any lesser daemons dogging my every footstep.

We danced a merry dance, his mace swung about madly as I moved about fluidly. I clambered onto his back and stabbed his head, jumping off as he slammed into a wall to shake me off. I smiled at this and hit him again, not giving him a chance to rest. I was enjoying this, using my magic to run circles round a supposed genius.

He roared again in frustration. And again and again. He stopped when I hit him where his Adams apple should be and then pulled his tongue out, before shoving the dirty, bloody thing down his throat. He sort of made a choking sound then. I moved about as he dropped his mace and started choking. I slashed at his knee and gave him a little push, sending him over.

He was still convulsing as he tried to dislodge his tongue from his throat. I went to his ear "Don't worry, I know CPR!" I whispered, before moving to his front and cutting his stomach open. I let the organs fall out to the ground and reached in, pulling out his heart. The daemon stopped moving then. It dissolved into a mushy type substance, including the heart in my hand, before disappearing.

I stood before the carcass of the warlord grinning. "And that's why I failed first aid" I said to my shocked audience of city guards.


	31. Chapter 31

_Only the awkward question; only the foolish ask twice_

The battle ended soon after. Not because the cultists were demoralised due to the death of their leader but because the relief force was brutal. And so was I. No survivors. We spent the rest of the day hunting the rebels out from the city and putting out fires. Those who surrendered were taken away and executed. Not because anyone told me too, but I was feeling a bit annoyed now having to chase those bastards around and couldn't be bothered to deal with the paperwork of sending them to prison.

Harsh, but it meant less work for me to do in the future and allowed the soldiers to take their anger out on the rebels. Serves them right for being assholes and not talking out their problems. Of course, as paths go it was very _dark_ and more than one soldier walked the path to chaos but they fought for an ideal and that kept them sane.

The wounded guards were taken into the castle and the courtyard became a mess of people, some injured but the majority had lost their homes to the invading force. It was a mighty pain having to go through them all.

My fellow mages had all been taken into the castle proper, into their rooms for treatment and stuff. As the only one not mortally wounded I had to visit them all. It was quite awkward staring at their unconscious bodies and just sitting there, so I took my Ipad with me to engage me whilst looking over them. The healers had done all they could to fix minor injuries, so it was up to me to fix broken bones and backs and stuff. Which I did.

They all lived. My magic saw to that, fixing bones and giving them energy enough to fight infections. I was really helpful for once. They began waking up from self-induced sleep soon after the last of the rebels had been cleared and conveniently managed to avoid having to do any real work, which pissed me off to no degree, no matter how grateful they were for my intervention.

Naturally though, there had to be one who didn't seem quite pleased with the work I had done in saving her life. Not that I blamed her, after all I did put her in the line of fire. When I entered her room, Anna was already there, sitting loyally beside her sister. A bit like a dog really.

"How are you feeling today?" I asked.

She sat up, because talking to me was _that_ important. "Better, thanks. But there is something I wanted to ask you" she replied, gesturing at a seat opposite Anna. I took it, because sitting is better than standing and some people have to actually work.

"You never explained what that crystal was." she told me. Expectant eyes pointed towards me. I gulped.

"Well...It was harmless, just a good luck charm really."

"So why did the daemon talk to it? And it was practically glowing."

I twisted in my seat uncomfortably. "You know, I think I just forgot something I have to do. So if you'll excuse me-" I was cut off as some tendrils of ice literally tied my arms in place. I yelped in pain as well as at the sudden cold. "Aarrggh! Cold! Really, really cold! Okay, okay. Give it a rest." I muttered, sinking back in place.

"Then answer the question." she said coldly. Jeez, give a guy a break will you?

"Fine, fine. Just let me go." I pleaded. She relented, letting the ice tendrils go. I shook my wrists about, procrastinating as much as possible. "Welllll... You know how I'm like really smart and everything..." I looked at my audience to see their reaction. Nothing. "So, I was thinking that I _might_ need a back up plan if something really bad happened and I was right and all, so its not as if it went wrong or anything, so all is good. Right?" I smiled at Anna, hoping for something other than an icy reception.

She smiled back. "It does sound as if you're avoiding the question to me, Cato." she smiled even more. "Maybe you should be a little more persuasive Elsa..."

"Anna, please. Lets keep this civil." Elsa scolded. "And you, answer the question. What was that crystal?" looking back at me.

"Okay. The reason I'm so awesome is because I'm half dragon. My soul, and magic, is half human, half dragon. Dragonborn, I guess. It means I have a little dragon voice in my head who talks to me. And he's also a king. When we...er, _found_ the crystal I separated his consciousness into that so I could think properly. I mean, he gets real annoying real quick. Doesn't stop talking usually." I looked up to see that Elsa wasn't particularly impressed.

"So you gave me...what? A piece of your soul?" she asked.

Anna interjected. "Aww! How sweet!" she said, clasping her hands to her heart. We both looked at her.

"Shut up, Anna" we said at the same time. She just smiled in response, grinning at embarrassing us.

"Yeah, I guess...?" I answered Elsa.

"And that's what the daemon smelt. You basically made me the bait in your elaborate scheme" she said.

I winced. "Well, kind of if you put it like that...but its not as if anything bad happened."

Again, Anna saw a good point to intercede. "Except being beaten up and having to spend several days in bed"

I sighed, Anna was not improving the situation. "Okay, it's not as if something really bad happened. Like death. And you got to spend the whole time in bed! I haven't had a good sleep since...ages!"

Elsa sighed. "That's irrelevant. Why didn't you tell me you were going to do this?"

Again, more thin ice. Elsa was really good at picking awkward topics to discuss. "well...uh... it was private. You know secrecy and stuff."

"Hmm. Does this, by any chance have anything to do with the small contingent of artillery pieces that you designed. And are currently being loaded onto my ship? Even after I told you to not make them."

"Actually, I didn't make them. Someone else did." I smiled triumphantly.

"Really, who was that?" Anna asked, smiling mischievously.

"Does it matter?" I asked weakly, funny how quickly one's mood changes.

They both nodded. "You know, I've quite forgotten who it w-" I let out a little gasp as icicles morphed once more into tendrils and bent my arm backwards.

"No more avoiding the question." Elsa warned.

Seeing as how she quite literally had my arm behind my back, I didn't have much choice. "It was all Kristoff's idea!"

Anna nodded. "Really? Shall we call him?" I shook my head "Why ever not?" She continued. Anna was definatly enjoying this. I am pretty sure there is something wrong with her to like making me suffer so.

"Who was it?" Elsa asked, tightening the grip on my arm.

"Eugene? Ow, fine...Ummm, one of the guards?" I swore as my arm was pulled back further. "Fine, fine! It was you. I used the crystal to _mind control_ you into doing it." I said. I quickly broke the tendril and dived off the chair as more sprouted from the ground.

I rolled and screened my back with a magical shield as shards of ice darted from Elsa's hands. I weaved and bobbed about the room, pulling back the door as what was essentially a winter storm began to brew inside. I jumped outside and slammed the door shut behind me.

As the queen was still bedridden, I slumped against the wall, soaked with water from her ice, it melting as her sphere of influence weakened

"Smooth" said a voice above me. Anna left the room, dripping wet from the snowstorm inside grinning. "You two really get along." she commented.

"Shut up" I growled.

"You know you're screwed on the way home." she said.

"Who said anything about going home?"


	32. Chapter 32

**This is a lot darker than the rest. So be warned that it's not all together pleasant at some bits. **

_"NO!"_

I spent the rest of the day avoiding everyone else. After messing up with Elsa there was no need for a repeat performance. Unfortunately, the next day it was announced she was able to go about her normal duties of pandering to other _important_ nobles and whatnot. Yay!

So, I spent most of that time in the nearest local tavern trying, and failing, to get absolutely smashed. A lot of the soldiers from the city had gathered there and I enjoyed being able to socialise with them, playing drinking games, gambling and just generally bitch about the women in our lives.

With a lot of the city in ruins, the remaining establishments got a lot of business and I was able to move between places easily, changing situations frequently so as not to get bored. That was perhaps the best day I had spent in this world, because nothing beats hanging out with friends and getting drunk. And seeing how the rest of the time was spent trying to stay alive and well-off.

I came out of the tavern a lot poorer and with a headache, although that was probably from some of the games we had played rather than a direct result of drinking too much. In merry spirits, I made my back to the castle. I had spent the whole day out, so it was early evening at this time.

After exchanging pleasantries with the guards outside, I sauntered back to my own room in the castle. I didn't even get lost this time, having been forced to figure out the optimal route to my room after some embarrassing scenarios, involving maids, guards and Anna.

As I stepped into my room, I was immediately assailed by a gust of cold wind that closed the door behind me. I looked to the window to see it was open and made to close it so that I could get some actual sleep. Like any reasonable person, I don't enjoy the cold. Like most Brits, i don't enjoy heat either, which made me anxious for someone other than me to make the thermostat. But until then, i would be forced to close windows, doors and stay the appropiate distance from candles and fires to at least enjoy the temperature.

And then something hit me, right in the back of the head, and I fell to the floor in a daze.

I woke up in a dark room, hands tied behind my back to a wooden chair. My legs were bound together by more rope and securely fastened to the legs of the chair. I was still garbed in the clothes I had been wearing but the sword and belt had been removed. Now how was i supposed to keep up my trousers?

I couldn't see much but I think I was alone. The floor looked wooden, planks running its length and I was too far from a wall to see what that was made up off.

I raised my head and fruitlessly wriggled about trying to loosen my hands. It didn't do much. It actually hurt my wrists to be honest so I stopped that act of self-harm.

At this point I realised I wasn't alone. In the corner, behind me I could here a slight breathing. I stopped moving and tried to gauge my companion. It was regular breathing, suggesting nothing wrong with the respiratory system, and the person didn't alter it all, just standing there... breathing.

Both parties didn't talk for ages. But after a while, I heard some movement and the breathing got closer. And then without warning my head snapped forwards as it was hit. Something flew my way and I tried to move my head, but I was too late. A fist hit me square in the jaw, shuddering the very teeth within.

For a couple of minutes I endured the beating, this person hitting face, chest and arms. Blood trickled down my face after a while, testament to the broken nose and few loose teeth. This wasn't the first time I had suffered at the hands of assholes, not even my childhood had been free from bullies and irritating colleagues. I tried to summon magic to my aid but a hand to my throat broke my concentration.

"I wouldn't do that if I was you" he hissed. I guess it was a _he_ from the pitch, but I could be wrong. Could. "If you do, I'll hurt your friend next door."

I nodded to show I understood and he let go. As he did, I tried to summon magic again, because I'm selfish like that. As the sparks began to fly another barrage of fists and feet struck me, stemming the magic again, somehow.

"I warned you" he hissed and tapped the floor loudly. On my left, I heard someone start to scream. For about three minutes the sound continued. It stopped and there was the sound of wood scraping the floor. A door opened and a young girl was thrown in.

With a sudden flash of guilt I realised she was about thirteen. And I didn't know her at all. She was bleeding heavily and her arm looked broken, at the very least dislocated.

The girl was left whimpering and my own jailer turned to me. "Open your mouth." he commanded. I shook my head. He motioned at the girl and raised a foot above her spine. I sighed and opened my mouth. The guy looked inside, running a hand over my teeth, muttering to himself. If it wasn't for the girl, I would have bitten down and through his fingers already. and then spat the stuff out; I'm not a cannibal, I'm English.

He pulled something out of his pocket and placed a cool, metal object about one tooth. I didn't get a chance to think about why he'd done that before the metal clamped down and he pulled. I yelled in pain, trying to close my mouth but the tweezers held them open. The man twisted and pulled, every so often hitting me in the face and adding to the pain.

After about eight minutes of excruciating pain the tooth came out and the man walked away and out of the room. The girl looked up at me with tear stained eyes. I must have been a mess. Fresh blood ran from my mouth where the tooth had been yanked out adding to the already drying blood from my nose.

I whimpered in pain, unable to speak after the torture. The man came back in, holding a bottle. He lashed out at the girl and kicked her in the stomach causing a scream of pain to erupt from her. Shattered ribs, I think.

He kicked my shin, and opened my mouth again, tilting it so that the blood ran back down my throat. I gagged. He tipped something down it and I squirmed in pain as the liquid burnt its way down to my stomach.

"Every time you summon magic, those closest to you will die" he whispered in my ear. I didn't know what to think. I could call his bluff, but I had failed the last time and he had tortured a thirteen year old girl remorselessly. I was also wondering how it was able to identify those close to the drinker. Seemed rather specific.

"I bet you're wondering how it works" he hissed. I nodded. He smiled, giving me a toothy grin. "It's a perversion of the true love magic. Quite wonderful really. The pinnacle of magic and alchemy." he turned back to the girl. "No need for this one. I think we can feed her to you for dinner" he laughed and exited the room. What a serious wacko.

The girl crawled towards me, under the impression that being near me would save her. It wouldn't, not without magic. Or some serious tech. She was next to my leg when the man came back, holding a knife. She cried once more as he held her by the throat and placed the knife next to her. The girl tried to lash out with her good arm but the man caught it.

"She would of survived if you hadn't tried to use magic" he said smiling. I snarled. I was completely helpless. I spat, sending it right into his eye. He cried out and dropped the knife and arm. The girl picked it up and tried to hit him with it.

He reacted with commendable speed, punching the girl in the gut and wrestling the blade from her grasp. "For that, I'm going to gut her slowly. You can watch her die."

And he did. The sick bastard stabbed her in the gut and pulled it out. The cry of pain the girl let out shook my very core. Or at least, the bit that still functioned. Blood slowly trickled out. Her blood. The bastard put the knife down in front of me and smiled, enjoying his handy work. I strained against the bonds trying to get out. But I couldn't. "Why?" I gasped.

He shrugged. "It's fun. Got paid a lot to do it as well, but killing people is fun." I swore at him and he just watched me struggle, laughing as the girl slowly died.

Her last moments were spent looking straight at me, with wide, pleading eyes, begging me to do something. But I couldn't. I was helpless. I struggled and struggled and she died. I watched her collapse, saw the light fade from her eyes and vanish. Bloodied, broken and innocent. "What did she do?" I asked silently.

"Nothing. Her parents died when the rebels attacked the city. They entered her house and killed them before her. Killed her younger sister too. And then you came along and saved her. They would have killed her too but your army stopped them." he sneered. "You made her an orphan. You don't even remember her do you? She looked up at her saviour who didn't even recognise her as a human. So f***ing far above everyone else you are." he said.

I stayed silent. He was mostly right. But I did remember her now. Storming the house, chasing down rebels. There had been four of them, one of them standing over her and the others looting the house. The already dead parents on the floor and the dismembered remains of her sister about the place. We'd killed them and taken her to the castle. I hadn't given her much thought. There had been hundreds of stories similar to hers that week.

But she'd got caught again and paid the price for my arrogance. It was humbling. I leant back, defeated. All the rage dissipated as the guilt caught up. Well, some of the rage.

He smiled and waved the knife in front of me, wiping the blade against my cheek smearing it with her blood. "Hungry?" he asked.

I swore and yanked my face away.

"Now, now. You don't know how long we plan to keep you here" he tutted. "anyway, the flesh of innocents is very tasty I hear, so clean and fresh. Pure even. Very good meat it is." he smirked as I tried to break free.

He kept on taunting, never once forgetting to mention it was my fault she had died. Winding me up until I snapped. And he laughed and laughed. He cupped his hands in her blood and washed my hair with it, letting it drip down onto me. I screamed in fury as he belittled her.

Until I broke free. I do not know how. Perhaps the blood lubricated the bind or perhaps my fury was such to break the rope. But as my hands came loose, I hit the man hard in the gut. He dropped the Knife, taken aback by the assault. Stumbling. I took up the knife and stabbed him before cutting my legs free from their imprisionment. He cried out, but I didn't care, showing him no sympathy as I kept on stabbing. His face was a bloody mess, his intestines hanging out loosely as I cut him up. Fury and rage took hold as I killed and kept on attacking. A blood-rage took me. A desire for vengeance. Not a human response, but dragon.

The door burst open and two more men walked in, both drawing their weapons. They paused as they saw the sight, two dead on the floor and another covered in blood. I gave them little chance to respond, burying the hilt of the knife in one head. The other drew a blade, but the blood lust was upon me fully and I attacked him, closing the distance rapidly so as to remove any advantage of his broadsword. My teeth raked his skin, teeth tearing it in shreds.

The man cried out as my hands gouged out his eyeballs. "Who was she?" I yelled.

"I-I don't know... I wasn't in char-" I cut him off as my teeth tore through his neck. I panted, covered in blood.

I stood up and checked the rest of the building for anyone else. No-one. We were in a big hut in the forest, no-one around for miles. I could see the castle in the distance though, the city lights gleaming like stars far away.

I found a lantern and checked upstairs for documents. I found her name written on a piece of paper besides my own. "Agnes" I read. I re-read it again and again, making sure the name was firmly secure in my mind. There would be no forgetting on my part. Her death would stay with me till I died.

I scooped up the coins on the table and made my way back to the room where she lay. I don't know much of what happened next but I remember crying over her body. The blood fury disappeared then, sated after seeing the girl dead before me, her life gone due to my own hubris.

I picked her up and carried her out of the house, gently depositing her body on the grass. I found some matches for candles and set the house on fire. The building held far too many bad memories for me. And I was still pissed off.

And then I picked her up again and trudged towards the city.


	33. Chapter 33

_It is not in my mind to ask questions that cannot be answered. That is the soul standing upon the crossroad of vacillation. You search for wisdom, but achieve only a stasis of will._

It took a while. Carrying the body of Agnes didn't make it easier, as you can imagine. I also refused to even attempt magic until I could be sure the potion had been removed fully from my body. But I persevered. It was, in my mind, a trial. Forcing my body to move despite tiredness and aching muscles. I sign of respect for her death, as I saw it.

Not much though. Not compared to the pain she had suffered. It still made me angry at the needlessness of the death. Not even a sacrifice, just a completely pointless death.

But I endured. I entered the city, mid-morning, covered in dried blood. Unwashed, smelly and holding the prone body of a young girl, equally messy in my arms. As you can imagine the guards were appalled. Seeing me, they rushed forward, intending to help. I batted them away, unwilling to part with the girl. But they let me through, mostly shocked at the condition of Agnes, the broken bone and dried blood standing out clearly.

The city was in the midst of being repaired. Hundreds of people clambered around burnt out shells, rooting for valuables and resources to salvage. Others helped raise tents and fix buildings, trying to find or make shelter for the refugees that flooded the city. Others sat on the streets, clogging up traffic as they mourned their losses.

With so many people moving about, it was hard to not be noticed. Some recognised me as the person who had rescued a princess. Others had seen me break the siege. Many had watched as I hunted rebels still within the city. But those who didn't saw a young, blood covered man holding the lifeless body of an even younger girl. They gave me a clear girth anyhow, out of respect or fear I do not know, nor care.

As I meandered my way through streets, a group of royal guards rode to meet me. They too offered help, insisting that I take a horse. But once again I refused, for my own soul and peace of mind I alone had to carry the task alone. They ended up awkwardly trotting alongside me, I suppose for my protection from more attacks.

I went to the new cemetery put up to accommodate the influx of dead. In particular the soldiers and guards who had fallen in defence of the city. I found an empty hole and placed her within, before burying her under fresh dirt and gravel. Not much of a funeral but it soothed my spirit as well as ended the journey. Finally, some semblance of... completion.

Sighing, I turned back to the horsemen, signalling I was finished. They motioned me to follow them to the castle, which they did. They also fell in around me. I guess to protect me from attackers still, but a nasty suspicion did flicker through.

As we walked towards the castle, I did realise that these were Elsa's own guards. And that I also knew them... from drinking. "Captain Richards, is that you?" I asked the guy beside me.

He looked down and nodded. "It is sir. It's good to see you...alive" he said, looking pointedly at my clothes.

I smiled. "How are you doing?" I asked good naturedly. Already the inklings of a plot began to form within my mind. Seizing the path that seemed to form, a lept once more onto the merry road of schemes and politcking that I so often found myself engage in.

Richards laughed. "Reasonably enough, although I think we drank our fair share last night, isn't that right Jenkins!" he called out. Jenkins nodded, but I noticed he was a little wobbly. A good conversation got going as we shared stories from the bar, like good friends. Excellent.

As they dismounted, they motioned me towards another wing of the castle. "Through here, sir. Her majesty wants us to keep watch over you till she arrives" Richards said, smiling apologetically.

I sighed, I had been expecting something like this too happen. "Why?"

"I don't know, but when she gave the orders, she didn't look very pleased. And if I remember everything from last night, I do seem to recall you mentioning that you two had gotten into an argument..." he replied.

I nodded and sighed again. "Aww, shit." I muttered. It would seem that my inherrent bad luck had sprouted wings once more.

The guards grinned at one another. "She's not that bad" one of them said. The others guards laughed.

"Trust you to say that, Andre!" one of them called out, making him blush very red. I smiled. Nothing like the easy banter between comrades to pick ones spirits back up. And to also intergrate oneself into their community.

I nodded. "Well, anyway. Seeing as how we're friends and all, how about you let me go?" I asked, going for broke.

"Wah!" Richards gasped, "Um... I don't think we could...highly unprofessional..." he stuttered.

I smiled. "Go on, you know I can pull strings back home. Save me from Elsa and I can return the favour, the next time the missus wants a break...Goes for all of you really..." I said smiling, leaving the invitation hanging.

They thought about it and then shrugged. "For you, sir, it would be an honour." they told me, stepping out of my way. Yes!

I grinned. "Life-savers, each and every-one of you. I will not forget this. Upon my honour." I turned and ran to my room. Forutnately, my honour counted for very little, a fact that got the dragon into a frightful sulk.

I slowed down when I reached it and flopped onto the bed, my good mood vanishing as quickly as it had come. Tears did not come this time, but that didn't stop me from sulking. The memory of that place still haunted me, refusing to go away.

It was a couple of hours until Elsa came to visit me. She knocked on the door "May I come in?" she asked, hovering outside the room.

I shrugged, quite hard to do when you're lying down. My back was turned towards her; I couldn't be bothered to face her. I guess I was still upset about my failure.

She closed the door behind her and walked in, taking a seat next to the bed. An Awkward silence arose once more. To be fair, I hadn't seen fit to change clothes or wash, so I was matted with blood, staining the covers with the red liquid. It was actually a little gross really.

"I saw you enter the city. Would you mind telling me where you were?" she asked softly.

"Yes." I replied bluntly. And truthfully. To be honest, it was a question.

"Oh. Well, I think I do _deserve_ an explanation as to why you weren't here last night. And why you're covered in blood"

"F*** off" I told her tiredly.

At this point Elsa started to raise her voice. I swear, every talk we have goes like this. "Excuse me? I don't like that tone you're taking with me. And I think a little good manners wouldn't go amiss either. I do deserve some reason as to why you think you can do what you like." she shouted. Okay, raising her voice may have been a slight mistake. Try _very loud_ instead.

I rolled my eyes. "People don't get what they _deserve, Y_our Majesty. Usually they get nothing at all and that's if they're lucky." I sneered back, rolling to face her, sitting upright.

She flinched, but managed to not run out of the room, screaming about my sanity. "Can you at least tell me what happened" Elsa pleaded.

I sighed and nodded. I began to recount everything I knew (That was related. Because I know a lot). I talked about the room I'd found myself in and described the beating I had endured. I told her of the jailer's threat and how he carried it out. In painfully graphic detail, I illustrated the torture he inflicted on Agnes, as well as me. I showed her the missing tooth, explaining how he'd grabbed it and tore it out. I mentioned the potion and the burning acid he'd tipped down my throat. But I stopped at the death of the girl. I broke down this time, sobbing as I recounted her slow agonising death. I didn't look up at Elsa, refusing to meet her eyes for my own were full of shame and pain.

I repeated what the jailer had told me about Agnes. How I'd made her an orphan and left her alone. And that I'd killed her. It was my fault though. I let her parents die and saved her from joining them. I was to blame. And I was, truly because like all with such power I had ignored the weak without it.

I could imagine Elsa's expression. The disappointment, the shame she felt that I had failed. I couldn't bear looking at her, it filled me with fear to see her look down with such loathing at me. No better than a murderer. A killer in her eyes. I deserved nothing, least of all the privileges heaped upon me at every turn. I dreaded her reaction for I knew deep down she hated me, for failing and for leading a young girl to her doom. I was hardly a good person, but this...

But I read it wrong. Woefully wrong. Instead, she acted more like Anna than a disappointed teacher. She pulled me into a hug and wept with me. Caught me completely off guard. It was actually quite pleasant (exaggeration, honest.), being so close to someone who cared. Maybe I was wrong, hugs are acceptable (No, they're not).

I pulled out and wiped my eyes. I'd realised that her dress was going to get really bloody if she was so close and that wouldn't be a good idea. "Thank you" I said genuinely moved.

She nodded. "I didn't realise what happened. I'm really sorry for bargi-"

I cut her off, smiling weakly. "No. It was my fault for...being me. I know I should have told you and not kept secrets... as much."

She smiled. "That's good to hear. But that's behind us. We all make mistakes, as you said. And its my turn to comfort you" she said.

"Really, there's no need. I'm fine."

"No you're not. You can't beat yourself up because the girl died. You didn't kill her specifically. You think they would of let her go anyway? You did what you could to save her. I know you did"

"You can't fool me that easily. I know what I did. I did nothing. There's no point in trying to absolve blame. I am responsible for her death. But I will avenge her." I replied, clenching my fists.

Elsa sighed. "Why do you have to be so stubborn?" she asked. She pulled me into another tight hug. "And you're not to go anywhere without an armed guard. There's people from Weseltown out for magical blood anyway but you seem to have a habit for getting into trouble."

I nodded as best as I could from within the hug. This talk had gone better than expected.


	34. Chapter 34

_As the mind to the body, so the soul to the spirit.  
><em>_As death to the mortal man so failure to the immortal,  
><em>_such is the price of all ambition_

"So what's all this about not being able to use magic?" Elsa asked

I shrugged. "I don't know. It's weird. I can still talk to Xanthious and I haven't seen any negative repercussions, but it is... there. Its like the frozen heart but different. I can feel it there, flowing through my veins. And I don't want to see what happens, if you know what I mean..." I explained, as best as I could.

Elsa nodded in agreement. "That's wise. And Xanthious... he's real?" she pulled out the crystal.

I nodded. "Of course. You've been talking to him, what did you think he was?"

"I thought I was talking to you. He sounds _just_ like you. And we didn't really talk because he didn't respond to my questions. He just explained what _Thomas the tank engine_ was."

I grinned. "Ahhh. That was my childhood. But yeah, he is real in the sense he's tucked away in a spirit stone. And dead. But he is still around and kicking, so to speak. Annoying as hell though"

She laughed and got up, smiling. "This was nice. Instead of yelling at each other, I feel much better just talking it out."

I nodded in agreement. I had enjoyed myself, kind of. I was a little wary about the hugging. It was okay in moderation...

"Now, I think I'll let you wash and change clothes, because those are filthy" she said, pointing at my own. "and so am I, unfortunately."

I smiled guiltily.

I walked her the several meters to the door and gave her a handshake for thanks. "You've been helpful." I whispered. "I really needed your help" I said honestly. I meant it. I felt a little lighter. Of course, there some things I wasn't going to reveal. No need to walk that minefield just yet.

She grinned in return and walked out. I made my way to the wash rooms and quickly cleaned myself of the blood and dirt. It truly felt like shedding skin and possibly even turning over a new page, or maybe just crossing some work out on the page, it wasn't _that_ major.

When I got back, hair dripping wet from where I'd been forced to furiously scrub it, I found Taldeer waiting outside my room. As I approached, she got up and snapped off a salute.

"Sir!" she called out.

I waved the salute away. "How are you doing?" I asked.

"Fine. Sir!" she yelled. She smiled, knowing that the whole thing got on my nerves. "But really I came to see you... Sir!"

Inwardly I smiled, she was just as mischievous as Anna. Where Nicole was friendly and studious, Taldeer loved to fool around, particularly with Reinhold. Mind, her power helped a lot in moving plates of food across the table and pulling chairs away and pranks in general.

"I'm all fine, thank you. I heard you did a good job defending the castle. Elsa spoke volumes about your tactical acumen." I complimented her, inviting her into my room. She followed shrugging.

"She was pretty _cool_ herself. And I had a good team. Nicole was on fire that day and Reinhold really knows how to handle a sword!" she said, eyes glinting wickedly. "And your book was quite helpful, although there was a spelling mistake on page four-hundred and five" Taldeer told me.

"There is not!" I exclaimed.

She nodded enthusiastically, "Is too! But anyway, how are you feeling? I was next door. I was expecting arguments and screaming, maybe the odd snowstorm. But I got nothing! You really know how to show us a good time!" she joked, playfully elbowing me.

I sighed, dealing with Taldeer when she was in this mood was a pain. "Nothings wrong. We sat down and discussed our problems like adults. Is that too much to believe?"

"Yes. So you settled your differences then?" I nodded. "Did you make out?"

"What! Taldeer, can you stop it with the... just stop it!" I yelled. She giggled, "I'll give you extra work to do" I warned.

She shrugged. "I'll copy off Reinhold. I've got him right where I want him..." she smiled. It was very much like dealing with me when I was younger: obnoxious, intelligent and just generally a pain in the ass, although I'd managed this at the age of seven. That had been a novel experience.

"Whatever. Why don't you go bother someone else" I said. She nodded, grinning having succeeded in embarrassing me.

The next day was rather boring, as we prepared to leave the day after. Unfortunately I was expected to participate in going round all the important people and shake their hands, whilst expressing my sadness at leaving. Rather grating on ones humility to be honest, because I didn't know most of them and couldn't care less whether they lived or died after leaving. But it was expected and like the dutiful servant, I begrudgingly followed the Queen and Anna in their example.

We ended up standing by the docks, moving along the line, making _pleasant _conversation with the lucky bastards that got to leave early due to not being wanted for as long. Truly, a tear was shed at their departure.

"It's been _so nice _meeting you... Oh, you must certainly visit us someday... definately, that was a _most _enjoyable moment... Really, that sounds wonderful"

But of course, life does not simply provide me with a chance to undertake a menial task without it taking a proverbial dump on my day.

I was talking to some foreign dignitary, I can't quite remember much about them, primarily because the whole things was a farce, but someone behind me, deeper into the city, called my name.

"Cato Aurelius!" they called. Politely excusing myself, I turned to the crowd, searching for whomever had requested my presence. It didn't take long. A tall, bulky figure pushed past the guards. As soon as I saw him, I thought trouble. Which sucked massively because I was currently unarmed, in the magical sense.

He was very posh. Very... Victorian I suppose, wearing an extravagant coat and also carrying a cane. He had one of those moustaches you could twiddle as well, creating the impression of a Victorian gentlemen, or your average, saturday morning cartoon villain. But surely it couldn't be...? Whilst the time period was a little skewed, the world here at least hadn't progressed anywhere near industrial revolution standards yet. Which posed the question as to why he was dressed like that. He _did_ stand out after all.

"Who are you?" I asked wearily, expecting trouble.

"Your biggest fan off course. Didn't you wonder who organised your kidnapping? And to think I almost had you..." he trailed off, absent mindedly tapping his cane. As soon as he said that I grew warmer. I could feel the blood lust take hold as I processed what he said.

I took one step forward and cried out as something sharp cut my cheek. With impossible speed he'd drawn a blade and sliced lightly at my cheek. I put a hand to the wound; I could feel blood.

"You're very easy to antagonise, you know that?" he said brightly, letting the cane fall to the floor. I snarled and drew my own weapon, now a smallish sword that forced me to get in close. It suited the temperament that I'd adopted with Xanthious. Close-ranged melee.

I could hear someone protesting behind me, but people made a circle for our impromptu duel. Unable to hold myself back, I leapt forward, one hand firmly grasped onto the sword, the other outstretched to rip and tear. He parried some of the strikes, ceding ground as I attacked furiously.

With a lazy flick, he casually disarmed me, hitting my hand, drawing yet more blood. It didn't stop me. With adrenalin racing through my blood, and my magic urging to be let loose, despite my best efforts, I kept up the assault, catching his blade with a bare hand and punching him where I could.

The fight quickly turned to a brawl, the two of us grappling on the ground. I was covered in cuts, but the hatred I felt pushed me to fight for longer. I could feel him grow tired.

And then he hit me with his own magic. A solid ball of darkness impacted heavily against my chin, sending me sprawling. He unsteadily got to his feet, his hands curled up as he focussed his magic.

"You can't win. Not without your power." he taunted. "She died, so you could be so weak" he said, "Or is that, because you're so weak?"

I growled and got up, circling him. He sighed and with a flick of his wrist wrapped me with thick vines made of the darkest blackness. Which is an incredibly weird material. And name to be honest. They coiled about, wrapping about me. From the first, I tensed, and as they coiled, I relaxed enabling me to slip out of them and pounce.

He swatted me out of the sky though. I landed heavily on my side and groaned silently. For about five minutes it continued, no matter how hard I attacked he was able to remove me from the fight, all the while taunting and mocking Agnes' death. Each time I attacked, I launched an array of strikes, leading with my left, cutting back with my right. Dodge the magical beam, move closer, dodge, parry his blade with my forearm, strike, lunge, guard against another sweep. Kick, swing... the battle raged on, dodging and parrying, spinning kicks followed by lunges, twirls leading to punches...

I slammed into the ground, a beam of black stuff slowly following me until it found its prey. The ground cracked beneath me, the force shattering stone, quite literally. I spat blood and thought about a new tactic. He was right. Without magic this was not a fair fight. Even unbridled fury had its limits.

I lifted myself up slowly so as not to put pressure on weakened bones.

"_What can I do?" _I thought desperately. I was getting thrashed out here. A mad, but still awesome, thought came to mind. Quickly weighing the pro's and con's I sent it to Xanthious, my good dragon buddy.

"_Can you still link with Elsa?" _I asked him. The dragon replied in the affirmative. Whilst I couldn't use magic, Xanthious could on my behalf. The dragon was still in his crystal, he insisted on owning it although I was the one who stole it, and Elsa still carried the stone around. Probably. She was trying to weasel more information from the dragon about what I got up to. Sneaky little...

I hastily dodged a magic attack, trying to work my way nearer to my opponent. I still didn't know his name, we had just started fighting rather quickly. I lashed out with fists and legs, forcing him to move back, still maintaining the premise of offensive.

"_Hello!" _I called in my mind.

In my peripheral vision, I saw Elsa jump, holding a hand to her head. _"What! Xanthious, is that you?"_

"_Not quite. It's a bit complicated for the time being and I am rather busy..." _I thought.

"_I know. That was rather rash. I'm sure the guards would have dealt with this sensibly." _she scolded.

"_Do you trust me?" _I asked

"_No!"_

"_Okay. I guess that's reasonable. But I need one chance to end this guy. Send a bolt of ice at me, and I'll reflect it at him with my watch"_ as I told her my plan, I shook my wrist slightly, letting her see the timepiece clearly. Something to aim for.

We argued for a bit, discussing the viability of the tactic, but I was able to out-science her and persuade her that this was a good idea. Considering that she was in a reasonably good mood with me, I was able to lie like hell about how this was actually a viable stratagem. There is no way on earth (point two) that this would ever be considered smart.

But it was really smart.

She nodded, unwilling but coerced anyway. Great.

As the two of us danced for a while, him with his magical attacks and me with my cowardly running away tactic, I motioned for her to attack. No gestures this time, but I saw the attack manifest itself in the air. A spear of magical ice flew towards me. I didn't move my hand to meet it.

The spear impacted heavily against my chest, dissipating upon impact and sending me on to my back. I saw Elsa raise a hand to her mouth in surprise. I also felt blood in my mouth once more and a familiar cold sensation nestled inside me. It was like a reunion!

My foe laughed, withdrawing any magic he still had out. "I must ask, how does it feel to be killed by your own friends? I don't think any of my previous opponents ever died in such an amusing fashion. I must congratulate you on achieving this" he said. What is it with the bad guys and the talking?

He knelt over my prone body. "Can you feel your spirit leave? The slow demise of your organs, as your heart tries to pump blood about your body, each thrust sending less and less through arteries. But you know, the great prophet can cure death. Nothing is not known by the greatest leader of men. Swear allegiance and the powers over shadow will be yours. Money, power, death, even love can be bargained for if you join us" he offered.

I spat more blood as I raised my head. "Go to hell." I said defiantly. He sighed in obvious disappointment

"A shame. We could of used your skill"

"No. I meant it, you little prick. Go to hell." I hit him with a point blank blast of light magic, sending the idiot flying backwards, his magic shield shimmering and glaring from the impact.

"What! How!" he called as he got up. How clichéd. No effort whatsoever into those lines.

"Because I'm brilliant on a scale not even invented yet" I crowed triumphantly, letting magic heal my various injuries, vastly increasing the process. It rejuvenated me, giving me the power to kick ass like never before seen.

The idea behind my plan was filled with the logic behind the cursed magic that I'd drunk. It would affect my hearts true love. However the frozen heart complex could only be thawed by an external act of true love. Thus, when I became infected once more with the frozen heart, I had no _true love_, only an act of true love would thaw it and revert the change. Important, the act had to be externally applied, because otherwise acts primarily of self-survival could count. It meant that I was immune to any of the true love bullshit the cursing magic seemed to work with.

When magic was used, for example to hit someone with, the potion tried to find a true love to screw over. But due to my now frozen heart, it couldn't find one (if there had been one to begin with I wasn't really sure...) because only when the act of love had been done would it be scrutinised as being a possible act of love. In principle, it would be impossible to figure out what can constitue an act of true love as it depends so much on context and emotional state, what worked before may not work again.

With this deeply flawed logic, the two ailments struggled to cope, one dark magic rule trying to usurp another magic rule resulted in stalemate. And when my own magic kicked in... they didn't last long, completely purged from my soul as I let the power go.

With my power safely flowing through veins, I laid down a most holy beat-down, hitting, crushing and thrashing my opponent to an inch of his life and just generally over-doing it. My opponent attempted to defend himself, but the blood-rage refused to be sated, and combined with an ever increasing arsenal of, frankly disturbing, powers I destroyed his shields, disabled his muscles and began to flay the skin of his bones with the intense energies I was channelling.

It took a whole squad of guards to restrain me from turning his face into strawberry jam, a task compounded by their fear being hit by stray bolts of lightning and the swirling vortex of light that encompassed me and my little revenge spree.

When they eventually pulled me off the adrenalin left and with a cynical "Hah!" I passed out, conveniently waking up on our ship in the middle of the sea having missed having to go through the whole goodbye ordeal. Looked like my luck had taken a turn for the better.

* * *

><p><strong>I get the feeling that i should say something interesting here. Unfortunately nothing comes to mind so i'll just take the time to say thanks to everyone thats read this and a special thanks to those who have actaully reviewed my work. It's really hard coming up with a character as irritatingly smug as Cato so I'm glad that some of you people like the unusual character.<strong>

**I'll just leave with the standard plea for more reviews, i would like to improve my riting and speling.**

**Oh, and that utter rubbish that i tried to pass off as logic, is complete tosh. It's what he believes and thus is what happens as a result. It's magic, i ain't got to explain s***.**


	35. Chapter 35

_There is no right or wrong in our profession. The present changes the  
>past from moment to moment. Only pray for the future to vindicate your action.<em>

I must admit I was not sad to leave Corona behind. Whilst undoubtedly a pleasant city I had been killed, beaten, tortured and seen more atrocities than most see in a life time. I'd missed the birthday celebration, the whole point of going and had been placed into positions that had forced me to think pro-actively. Hardly a holiday.

But it did get me thinking. The enemy had made their moves. They possessed superior soldiers and more of them. Their generals were more than capable of going toe to toe with a cadre of magi and they were not above kidnappings and torture. Their human followers were fanatical and devout, a terrifying combination.

I left everyone else to their own, concentrating solely on the next moves. My ambition of world domination through peace (**Hah!**) had met its first obstacle. A force of equal magnitude attempting the same idea. It was inevitable that there would be collateral damage. And at the moment we were the underdogs.

Unfortunately any plans I had to even the playing field were incredibly dangerous. Elsa definitely wouldn't approve but my own opinion had been greatly influenced by the pain I had suffered by being unprepared. Superior technology wins wars. And this was what this would turn too in the end. A drawn off conflict between two superpowers. The world may be different, but there are some events that must remain the same wherever humans are involved.

Our arrival home brought out the entire population of the capitol. We docked to cheering crowds of jubilant citizens. The events in Corona had spread far and whilst Elsa may not have been a popular queen, she was a good one at the very least. I suppose the actions of the royal guard had inspired the patriotism within every loyal persons soul as well.

As I slipped through crowds I met up with Olaf.

"Hey Cato!" he called out. "I did what Elsa told me too! I looked after the castle!" he told me, a grin plastered over his face. "And Kai says you've got visitors!"

Over our stay the castle had gathered thirty six sorcerers and wizards of varying potential. When I gathered them into the great hall, the only room big enough to hold them all comfortably it was an impressive sight. Of course, it boded ill for future me but at the time, it activated plans and schemes that would shake the very world.

My plans were forced to wait though. The city quickly put up a schoolhouse, with the aid of the students, using a mixture of ice, metal and stone to quickly create a very large estate within the woods near the city. A five minute walk from the outskirts. We also cleared enough room to start the proper building of houses and shops but these progressed slower.

My students were a mixture of ages. They varied from young children of about two years old to the eldest, a mid-fifties man with the power over wind. Most however were in their early teens.

I used the older ones as role models, teaching them separately on faster courses so they could at least assist when I taught the rest Maths, English and magic. To accommodate so many people, I created an intricate timetable, placing each students into a class of similar ability. Each pupil had three hours of lessons a day, followed by helping out in the castle and some basic weapon training.

And f*** was it hard. Both mentally exhausting and physically. I was teaching from nine in the morning to about five in the afternoon and when I got back I conducted my own studies as well as sorted out whatever problems the guards had for me that day.

For the first time, in like forever, I could somewhat sympathise with my former teachers.

As the weeks passed, so did summer. Whilst most of the trees retained green leaves, a few shed them for a more vibrant orange and brown. The start of harvest. It mattered little to me, my days were filled with teaching and learning, as well as coping with the massive amounts of stress such a job acquired. But I enjoyed it. Every day was difficult, yet I could safely say that I came out a little wiser. Sappy teaching rubbish aside, I did enjoy the work.

However, as I became a more accepted person within the castle the queen insisted that I attend weekly meetings with the politicians and other various scum-bags who all thought their personal opinion was worth hearing. To my credit, I managed through many meetings without sleeping and usually sat at the back messing around like I was wont to do, back in the day. But every so often I was forced to participate in the sparring sessions, trying to convince the others I wasn't a lazy slob, who wasn't needed at this particular moment. Probably helped that I was the most accomplished mage out of all the kids we'd taken in and incredibly scary when pissed. Maybe not _cover an entire country in snow and ice_ scary but more along the lines _I will find and kill your entire family _type.

In the sparse time I had to myself I worked still. The influx of magic into the local area allowed me to conduct little experiments on the environment and students themselves, collecting samples of various fluids when I got the chance and gently boosting the innovation that was starting to spread through the world.

I didn't find much helpful, nothing incredibly useful in fighting or general use but it often made it easier to explain what magic was and where the students got their power from. This in turn, changed their role from pupils to warriors-in-training as I indoctrinated them on the roles of command, honour and fighting.

This went down poorly with Elsa. The whole concept had originally been peaceful, sorcerers leading the world in peaceful union. But that wasn't going to happen. Whilst we didn't exactly shout and scream at one another we rarely left in a good mood having stretched our patience to long strands of very thin wire as we argued. It was rather depressing to regularly come out not having steamrolled my opposition .

We'd taken up playing chess, venting our fury on the pawns, sending them to suicidal positions to further the grand scheme as we discussed our opinions. It did help, although we got a little competitive, resulting in less yelling and more unfounded accusations of cheating. (**They were totally founded**)

As time wore on I started to worry. Having heard nothing about enemy positions and movements made me incredibly paranoid. Not completely unreasonable as the threat was real and dangerous, not to mention completely mad and thus unpredictable.

Arendelle relied solely on a few antiquated naval vessels and its standing city guard to protect herself. Despite my protests, Elsa refused to raise an army, insisting that should the worst happen, the spider web of alliances would come to our aid. Rather desperate to be honest, but the queen argued that Arendelle raising an army would suggest that she was preparing for war, a concept that would scare shitless those about the country.

As we traded reasons as to why the other was wrong, things improved. Trade started to flourish, gradually rising to figures recorded during the reigns of the previous monarchs. Poverty was at an all time low, mainly because I hired all the unemployed in mines and builders, quickly tearing the country apart for land and resources. I sent off my most able mathemagicians to ply the docks for quick trades and to raise large sums of money. This they did, some of my pupils staging magic shows to draw crowds and reduce the amount of competition whilst the others set up deals and bought, sold and bartered goods about.

I was very pleased. They had learnt well, I even had to post guards at their magic shows to make sure all of my students participated in legal activities and didn't just steal coins from tourists. Of course I kept this a secret from my friends, no doubt they would raise objections if I was raising students to be just as immoral as I was.

It was an early Sunday morning, having just got up at the crack of dawn so I could further my own intellectual boundaries. Sunday was the best day. It was the only day that I didn't have to teach the little brats on, and as much as I enjoyed sharing knowledge, it was exhausting having to keep up with their incessant whining.

And I enjoy learning. Something about school always appealed to me as a child, I would rather stay at the library, finishing a last piece of homework than dashing about a field, kicking a muddy ball about, like my brother.

Which was why Sunday in general was usually dedicated to my own work. This had taken a seat what with all the going ons lately. There is something satisfying about completing work as well. The thrill, when you cross that last 't', dot that last bullet point and put your pen down. Finished.

Which is why I was writing with a passion, scribbling down everything that came to mind. My desk was, as usual, freakishly neat and ordered, piles of papers were stacked about me, each a sum of my frantic brain trying to turn thoughts to words.

Half was gibberish. Or rather, not useful as of the moment. I paused. About me stood hundreds of papers detailing many different ideas, organised alphabetically into the shelves and folders. Behind me, on the table, stood about thirty different items, my inventions that I was working on.

Holding the paper I'd just scribbled on, I got up and made my way to the table, eyes roving for the particular piece I wanted. There, the miniature laser pointer that I'd made. I checked the maths I'd just done. Ah, yes. Maybe it could be increased in power... potentially lethal? I made a quick note.

I sighed. Not yet. I needed more material. I carefully put the notes away, making sure they were neatly organised as usual. I looked for something else to do. Hm, fertiliser or the magic potential of GM crops? Both paths led to an increased harvest in the future, but what would be the best...

I was interrupted from my careful thought process by a knock on the door. I rolled my eyes. This was going to be fun.

The door opened to reveal a rather tired looking Queen, dressed once again in an elegant dress fashioned by her magic. Ugh, it was so cumbersome, seriously, hadn't she watched the Incredibles and its warnings of capes? Actually, I guess not.

"May I come in?" she asked politely. I deliberated on my answer. A polite 'no' or a rather resounding door-in-the face? Both had merits...

Taking my silence as a yes, she walked in. I suppose that's one of the benefits of being a Queen, although I was _sure_ that I'd written my contract to remove any potential power she might have over me. I might have to go over that document.

Elsa glanced around the room, obviously confused. Talk about muggles. "What exactly are you doing" she asked, fingering some of my more... esoteric plans. "Why do I get the feeling that these are all rather... dangerous?" she asked.

"Well, all of it is _dangerous_. To a certain degree of course. Like this pen is really dangerous if you're thirsty for ink. And your dress is really dangerous if you're near an aeroplane jet. Or hormonal boys, both as bad the other." I rambled.

She looked at me oddly, also checking her dress at the same time. Probably never realised that she was a walking accident waiting to happen. I sighed. "Some of the stuff is dangerous. But, war makes technology move forward in leaps and bounds. I mean, extended wars that quickly eat through supporting theories aren't good, because then you stagnate, but a short term crusade or something can really boost the economy."

She frowned, obviously not convinced. To be honest, neither was I. "I don't really like the idea of that." she said, "And from the looks of your table, you might just give our armoury a run for its money"

I sighed. For some reason, people always thought I was up to no good. I generally wasn't, but I'm pretty sure that's beside the point. "Nah uh. You see this is non-lethal... kind of." I walked over to the table and picked up what looked to be an over-turned flower pot. "This is a miniature fission power generator!" I grinned, lifting it up so she could see.

"What does it do?" she asked curiously, inspecting it for any guns or big red buttons.

"Awesome stuff. Seriously, it's pretty interesting. You see, it works on similar principles of the sun, splitting atoms under intense heat. Now, where I come from, the main problem was either getting it up to that heat, or containing it. But the introduction of magical theory makes it work." I stopped, handing it over to her to carry, whilst I bobbed about, opening drawers and finding cables.

I kept on talking, "By using my magic as a shield, I was able to protect the components from the intense heat the process causes. Now the problem was getting it to the heat. Once again, magic provided the answer. By rubbing electrons along a magical barrier it starts to generate a lot of friction and as a waste product heat. By using an electromagnet imbued with magic, I can pass a slight current through the magic barrier incredibly quickly and if I let the circuit continue, voilà! Massive amounts of heat created. The whole thing is sustainable and runs itself after the initial input." I stood back up.

"The main problem then is keeping the magic going." I pulled out some copper wires I'd recently made and attached them to the generator. "If I don't concentrate, the feed is cut and the machine stops working." I connected the wire to a lamp that I'd had made. "the solution though lay once more with magic." I turned the switches, allowing the power to run. The lamp turned on. Elsa looked rather impressed, as they were still using candles for light.

I reached down into a drawer and pulled out a conical flask, filled with a light, pale yellow liquid, with little crystals floating on top. "This flask is currently making energy crystals. When finished, each crystal will be able to function as a reservoir of magical energy, a bit like a rechargeable battery. They enable the circuit to keep going as it can lend its own magic to the machine. An average circuit can provide for a magic-hungry machine like this for about fourteen years. And it'll keep going when I die."

Elsa looked amazed. "I didn't know about these" she said, holding the flask to the light. "How do you do it? Could I do it?" she asked, interested in their energy storing capabilities.

"Sure, it's completely natural. As the body uses magic, like any other process it creates pure waste as a by-product, magic that can be used for any affinity. When the liquid is exposed to pure Fluorine gas and contained like so, it will after a while, make a sample of crystals. They are in themselves rather wonderful. Pure crystalline structure as well."

"What's the liquid?" she asked.

I handed her a bottle of the pale liquid. "You can have this to try. I'll find you some fluorine and you'll be producing your own energy crystals in about a weeks time!" I said smiling.

"Thank you. What's the liquid?" she asked again.

I sighed. I hadn't been able to completely throw her off. "Well, the body only has so many ways of removing waste..." I paused, wondering how best to go from here, "Anyway, after some completely unrelated experiments that I'll doubt you want to hear, I realised the magic residing in urine. From there it was only a matter of applying something with enough force to bring the magic out, which is why I've settled for fluorine. It's really electronegative you see..."

Elsa made a face and quickly held the flask away from her. "So, I'm holding a flask of your, days old, urine?" she said grimacing. I nodded, before spiralling downwards and opening another drawer. In the flask that I then pulled out was a brownish liquid with little crystals floating on top.

"If you think that's disgusting, this is about a week old. Nowhere near as effective as urine but I think faeces left like this is actually quite a good fertiliser." I said.

She started to back away from me, and as a result the flask of mature faeces I was holding. "That is disgusting!" she cried out, "Why on earth do you have that in your drawers!?"

I shrugged. "It's a got a rune of sealing on it."

She looked at me, slightly stunned at how brilliant I was. "I think I need some water..." she muttered before placing the flask of pee down and bolting to the bathroom. I sighed. And then realised where she'd gone.

"Wait! Don't go in th-" I yelled after her. I was cut short by a short scream. Great.

She came out of the bathroom looking a lot paler than usual, if that were possible. "Why is your bath tub full of blood!" she steamed.

I rolled my eyes. "It's not filled with blood. It's filled with vials, which are filled with blood. Seriously." I sighed. For some reason my pedantic reasoning didn't placate her.

"Why?" she asked viciously.

"Well... I was doing some work on blood, specifically magical blood, a few days ago, but I got sidetracked and I was kind of in the middle of some pretty major work... and I didn't have enough room to store them anywhere else. My bathroom cabinet is being used for dangerous chemicals after all..." maybe I shouldn't have said that last bit...

"And _why_ is your bathroom cabinet full of dangerous chemicals?"

"... because I stored the rocket launcher under the bed...?" I winced as she started to practical vibrate in anger.


	36. Chapter 36

_Every lone spirit doubts his strength_

Things were certainly heading downwards on a smooth plane, inclined at thrity degrees, with no friction... Yep, totally bad. I sighed once more. This was becoming a thing. "It's not dangerous... unless you drink it. Or use it improperly. Or spill it. And the chemicals are quite useful for scientific purposes, like dissolving or replacing elements and the rocket launcher doesn't have any ammunition either...yet." I explained.

"And as for the blood... it really is useful when I get round to analysing their DNA. I haven't found out why magic goes to some people and not others, or what triggers their affinity and ability beyond some ancient dragon lore stuff that hasn't been proven." I pointed my last remark at Xanthious' crystal, but got no response.

Elsa scowled, clearly not happy about me turning _my _room into a laboratory. "I still don't think it's a good idea to have all of this..." here she gestured at all my cool toys, "out in the open.

"Fair point." I agreed reluctantly. "However, I am making some pretty substantial breakthroughs in technology and really giving your tech levels a boost. Seriously, you guys are so slow"

Elsa frowned "What do you mean? Whilst I can see that you are doing _some_ impressive work, I struggle to understand exactly how we are so _slow_?

I smirked. "Of course not. One does not know that they're stupid till they're explicitly told so. Looking through your library, I've found all sorts of historical text books. No doubt you've read some of them. However what I've found is that you're stagnating." Here, I stopped and turned around dumping the contents of my hand onto the nearest available surface.

I quickly skimmed through my files and folders and pulled out my notes on history. I turned back to realise Elsa was still standing in the bathroom. Silly girl. With speed, I yanked her back into the main room, where civilised people talk and waved the papers enthusiastically in her face. "What you're experiencing is quite a well-thought out theoretical process. It's the principle side-effects of having ready access to magic or something akin to it." I said.

"Here, read this. It's sums up the issue rather nicely. And it contains all the relevant books so you can check my results. I'm not lying this time" I said thrusting the small stack of paper into her chest. I then shepherded her to the door. "Enjoy!" I called out as I pushed her out of the door and closed it behind her.

I indulged myself to a small, but genuine, smile as I was left alone once mo-

"Knock, Knock, Knock!" Elsa shouted from the other side of the door. Great. Now what?

Reluctantly I opened the door again. "What?" I asked grumpily.

Elsa glowered, "Whilst I do apologise for being so rudely pushed out, I did have an agenda of my own when I came to visit you, and it wasn't to see how dangerous your room is... Guard captain Nikolaus wants you to check on the armoury and I think this would be a good chance for _you_ to create a checklist for what we have stored in there. And you could add your own stuff onto that list as well as give me a report on the potential risks and dangers, as well as benefits, of everything you're doing here." she waved her hand in the general direction of my room.

Before I could complain, she walked down the corridor, having giving me some menial chores to do that she was far too lazy to do herself. Well, there went me free day.

Arendelle's armoury was a small underground cellar, well-hidden from the prying eyes of visitors and citizens. A full troop of guard patrolled the corridor leading to the room. And by that I mean sat around playing cards and gambling. And drinking. Despite the apparently lax nature of the guards, it was still well-defended. It forced people down a narrow, claustrophobic passageway, fighting a small army of drunk, but well-armed men.

Of course, these obstacles would be little problem for me and my over-poweredness. That, along with my made-up title meant I could quite literally turn up out of the blue and demand access, which i sprecisely what I did. Mind, the armoury itself wasn't particularly impressive. A collection of bows, crossbows, swords and other implements of death scattered about its walls. Really it was the main place to store weapons which was why it was in any way important.

The room was usually pretty dark, a few scant torches fastened to the walls threw down a meagre amount of light, but being far too lazy to actually light a torch, I sent a ball of magic in the air to light the way.

On one hand, it was more than enough to light the interior. On the other hand, it also illuminated the young woman standing in what had once been the shadows.

The woman hissed and sprang forwards, hands outstretched. Both hands ended with long, sharp nails, and both were rather pointedly aimed at my neck.

_Hmm... not a pleasant end. Read body movements. Move. React._

I spun to the side, letting the woman past by.

She responded remarkably quickly, skidding to a stop before performing an acrobatic kick aimed at sweeping me of my feet. In the darkness, it might have worked. In light, I was more than able to skip over it. As I landed, I had more time to analyse my opponent. Small, smaller than me definitely, pale and thin. Short, choppy black hair and... were those fangs...?

Her eyes were tinged with a slight red, glinting dully when shadowed. Was this a vampire? Nice, this world had it all.

_Concentrate! Read her later! Move. React. Win._

I was pulled back into whatever warped reality I found myself in by another flurry of strikes. With practised ease I blocked her assault. Swerving aside of punches and skipping over kicks. Once again my improving reflexes granted to me by my lucky association of a dragon were astoundingly helpful. Without it I would probably be on the floor being drained of blood right about now.

The woman lashed out again, sending a sharp fist straight at my stomach. I nimbly moved aside and caught the hand deftly. From touch I could feel a small, circular burn mark on the soft skin. Nature wasn't so precise to make such a wound like that. I pulled back, pulling her towards me. She stumbled. Spinning past her, I elbowed her in the small of her back, sending her tumbling.

To her credit she pulled herself up quickly, turning to face me. She hissed once more as my little ball of light pulsed brightly. She charged. I smirked.

I met each blow, dissipating the force through my arms gently, her every strike turned away effortlessly. Such an offensive move was bound to have some issues. As she kept on attacking, seeking a way through my guard, she leant forwards, leaning more and more into me as I slowly gave ground, outstretched.

I caught one arm in motion, stopping its movement suddenly. The other arm came round to free it. I gave her a self-satisfied smirk and let her go, neatly side-stepping at the same time. She toppled over, landing face first onto the rocky ground, unable to catch herself.

With a gentle flick of my pinky, I summoned a mess of golden rope into being and promptly tied her up. She wriggled, but the bounds were secured. Giving a mocking bow to her I left my little orb of light hovering on top of her head whilst I conducted a survey of the armoury.

As I was finishing, checking up on the bows, I heard the tell-tale "snikt!" of ropes being cut. I turned quickly and narrowly dodged a claymore flying through the air. The sword clattered somewhere behind me. My assailant launched herself towards me, bits of magical rope gleaming between her teeth. How resourceful.

This time, my little magical orb of light had been snuffed out, leaving the room mostly dark, with miserable patches of light given of about the room. As luck would have it, there was no such patch near me. The only light I did have were the two red pinpricks that were my opponents eyes.

Whilst my senses were, for the most part, superhuman, being robbed momentarily of light was startling. Quick to press her advantage she lunged, nails ready to puncture skin. I met her attack head-on, launching myself towards her too. With her prey doing something so stupid, she was lifted off her feet and thrown bodily onto the ground.

As she picked herself up, I reached round for a weapon, my fist enclosing around a thick handle. Whilst I could have used magic, I couldn't really be bothered, not to mention that I was enjoying myself here.

_Arrogance, hmph. Focus and win. Read. Move. Repeat._

I swung my blade. Or would have if it had been a sword. But no, I managed to pick up a bow. I sighed. Regardless, my improvised staff sent her into a small stand of maces, sending the weapons to the ground nosily.

We resumed out fight. This time I met her attacks with the wooden bow in between. I knocked aside an outstretched arm and pirouetted, gliding past her and letting her own momentum carry her forwards. By now my eyes were used to seeing the world in such a dark hue. With grace I parried more attacks, extending the bow to fight at distance, forcing her to defend herself as I elegantly danced the wooden stick between her own guard.

She grabbed hold of the weapon and yanked me forwards. I stumbled and she positioned herself to better hit me. She struck out, nails outstretched. With a small twist, I narrowly avoided the attack, falling to the ground amidst a quiver of arrows.

I grunted upon landing. That wasn't particularly graceful at all. The vampire leapt on top and hit me once on the head to knock me out. It didn't work. As her fangs moved towards my neck, I sighed and opened my palm. A small burst of magic exploded outwards sending her careening into the wall, where she lay unmoving.

I picked myself up, dusting myself down as I did so. I slung the bow over my shoulder and quickly tidied the room up, no sense in making the queen think I was as inept as I actually was and walked curiously towards the slumped vampire.

A quick check showed she was okay. Except for a potentially broken back. And a chipped fang. And her burn mark. And quite possibly pride. Cautiously I knelt down and sent a spark of healing magic into her, letting the little lights dance about and enter her bloodstream. At the same time, I held up her arm. There, emblazoned on it was a small swirl of blackened skin. Painful.

From the small amount of study I had done into the study of magical runes, I could tell that this was one. From the looks of it this one was a rune for control. The pattern looked weird though, something felt off about it. Like an oddly dotted 'i' I suppose is a similar comparison.

Of course, my magic was stronger than any rune, the subject only coming into being due to poor magi and their practises. The small dose of healing magic fixed her back, probably, restored her fang to normal and replaced the charred skin and removed the rune. There was an angry hiss as the mark vanished.

I collapsed backwards as the vampire lashed out with the vigour of a cornered beast. I gave an apathetic sigh. Really now?

"What did you do?" she whispered urgently, frantically searching her body.

"I helped you. You're _welcome_." I snarled in response, getting back up. "I removed your rune." I told her.

She checked her arm and gasped. True to my word, I had indeed healed the rune, breaking it and stopping whatever it was doing. "You... healed me?" she asked incredulously. You know at some points in life, you get tired of always being cast as a villain.

I rolled my eyes. "Well duh. What did you expect? For me to drink your blood?"

She flinched. "I'm sorry... it wasn't me in control... the evil one made it..." she muttered. The vampire looked up at me, "He killed my mother. He killed my father. He enslaved my brothers. I had no choice..." she looked as if she was about to start crying. With such a pathetically low self-esteem, she would make a fine friend to Elsa. They could cry about how useless they were together!

I sighed and bent down to help her up. "I'm sorry for your loss. However I guess I can offer you the support of Arendelle and lodging for the time being and if you tell me where the man is, I will stop him." I said simply.

She looked shocked. Why? Is it really that incredible that I would help someone. Really? "Why would you do that?"

Inwardly I groaned. "Because deep down, I'm a nice person." I said.

I grumpily picked at my food, spearing a small side of meat onto my forks. Whilst the food wasn't _too _bad, what really put me in a bad mood was the conversation. At the moment we were talking about Natasha, the vampire I'd recently picked up.

Surprisingly Elsa was okay with me bringing in a vampire assassin. No what they all found so amusing was my reasoning. Again, they seemed to find it hard to believe that this was all from the generosity of my own heart. I groaned.

"Anna, I swear to your god, I will punch if you don't shut up." I said suddenly. Despite my threat she continued laughing. I made to get up, but Kristoff pulled me back.

"Just relax. I'm sure she'll stop laughing if you tell us why you're letting Natasha stay" he said, smirking slightly.

I groaned again. "Is it too much to believe that I have no ulterior motive?" I pleaded.

Everyone at the table stopped talking and looked back. "Yes" they replied before continuing eating.

In revenge for Anna's continued laughter, I flicked some peas at her before sulking for the rest of the meal. Philistines.

* * *

><p><strong>I've changed the cover pic. I suppose this is kind of how Cato looks. I'm working on getting some <em>official<em> pictures done on the magi, but my laptop is playing up again.**


End file.
